Canaries by Alex Makepeace BLOG TOUR #Canaries @LexMakepeace @elsewhenpress @RandomTTours #BookReview

 

IT HAPPENED HERE


In a chillingly credible near-future Britain, a new government sweeps to power with a radical agenda. For some, life will never be the same again.

Bryan and Philip are living a comfortable life with their adopted children in London and barely give a thought to how the change of government might affect them. But little by little the family and their friends - gay and straight - begin to discover their way of life is under threat. When the family are forced to go on the run from the authorities, they are faced with impossible choices, and soon find out who their true friends really are.



Includes instances of violence, prejudice and bullying that some readers may find upsetting.

Canaries by Alex Makepeace was published on 04 July 2025 by Elsewhen Press. My thanks to the publisher who sent. my copy for review as part of this #RandomThingsTours Blog Tour 

I am a huge fan of speculative fiction, it is often very unsettling as we have some very clever authors who look into the future and describe things that really could happen.  

I don't think anyone can deny that the premise of Alex Makepeace's Canaries is utterly and totally relevant to today and will resonate painfully with many readers. 

Given that, it is also a brilliantly created story about two characters who could live on your own street. Beautifully imagined, with elegance and poise. 

Bryan and Philip, a middle-class gay couple and their two adopted children go on the run when a new government come to power with a radical agenda that forces them to flee.  What Makepeace does so very well is to describe just how regular people, and organisations respond to the new government. 

At times it's like reading the current news, with our own new government under fire, and of course, the whole Trump thing in the US.

I'm finding it quite difficult to write a review of this one without giving away the plot, but still expressing my horror at what could happen here! 

Recommended by me. 

Alex Makepeace was raised in London and began his career as a journalist before moving into international aid and public health, where he learned that what might seem like a catastrophe to some is just another day at the office for others. 

That got him thinking, and that got him writing. 

He also publishes Italy-set fiction as Tom Benjamin.

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