Tory Heaven; Or Thunder on the Right

Five British escapees from Singapore stranded on an island just off New Guinea are returned to Britain in 1945 expecting to find a newly elected socialist government. As the Cathartic sails towards Southampton, one of the returnees, James Leigh-Smith, fervently wishes that instead of a socialist regime he will ‘see the England of all decent Conservatives’ dreams’. His dream is realised when he arrives to find that the Tories have been elected, and he himself is the lucky beneficiary of a newly stratified society, following public revulsion to a comprehensive programme of egalitarian rule by socialist intellectuals. We follow James’ new life as a Grade A, culminating in a cruel awakening when he meets with Martin Wetherall, one of his former castaway companions, now a Grade E making a bid to escape to Ireland, who persuades him to exchange his rags for James’ dinner jacket. The society so strictly organised for the benefit of the upper classes dissolves before his eyes.