Simon Ashberry reviews The Buddha of Brewer Street, by Michael Dobbs

Michael Dobbs was not a happy bunny when he surfaced on May 2 last year.

As an arch-Tory, he was devastated by the magnitude of Labour's victory in the general election, even though he had seen it coming from some distance.

"It was appalling. It was one of the worst nights of my life, even though the result was totally expected," said Dobbs.

That's hardly surprising. Dobbs, who will visit Bradford next week to talk about his latest book The Buddha of Brewer Street, started writing novels as recently as 1987.

Before then he was a personal aide to Margaret Thatcher, Chief of Staff to the Conservative Party and later its deputy chairman as well as being right-hand man to Norman Tebbit.

But in recent years he has become best known as the creator of Francis Urquhart, the notorious MP who featured in his best-sellers House of Cards, To Play The King and The Final Cut.

Now Dobbs has turned his attention to a new character, Thomas Goodfellowe, who was introduced to readers last year in the novel Goodfellowe MP.

In his new book out this week, the unlikely political hero continues his adventures when he gets mixed up in an international conspiracy following the birth of a new Dalai Lama, the infant god-king of Tibet.

"Francis Urquhart always had a relatively short lifespan," said Dobbs.

"He kills off a Prime Minister in the first book, then he kills off a king and then starts an international war. Before very long it would have become too much.

"I wanted to see if I could develop a totally different character, one who wouldn't be a pale shadow of Urquhart. He has lots of potential. He could go on and on and on because there's nothing he can't get involved in."

Urquhart's notoriety spread more rapidly when his books were adapted by BBC Television, with Ian Richardson portraying the politician which millions of viewers loved to hate.

And Dobbs revealed there are already plans for similar treatment of Goodfellowe, with an independent production company developing an idea to turn the character's adventures into a series for Meridian.

"The first drafts of the scripts are being worked on in the first part of this year," said Dobbs. "It's too soon to talk about who might be suitable for the role of Goodfellowe."

It's easy for commentators to suggest that the arrival of Goodfellowe and disappearance of Urquhart is not unconnected with the general sea change in British politics. But Dobbs points out that it would be wrong to think of his new creation as a Blairite - after all, the genesis of the character goes back four years when John Smith was still Labour leader.

"Thomas Goodfellowe is without party. He's a member of the governing party but he's a man who would fall foul of Tony Blair. He doesn't go in for part discipline or things like that," he said.

For all that the general election made him depressed, Dobbs says that four years ago he did foresee major changes in the political landscape.

"It was apparent something was happening. I personally thought even then that the nature of politics was changing and I thought that Goodfellowe would fit in with that new style of politics," he said.

"It's not just about politics either. The most demonstrable period was not on May 1 but on the day of Princess Diana's funeral.

"I see that as being a much more effective expression of the changes that are going on. It's to do with a rejection of the old and the past and the traditional way of doing things."

Dobbs believes that the current malaise affecting William Hague and his party is at least partly a legacy of the ruthless efficiency of Thatcherism.

"The problem that the Tory Party has is the problem of its success. They wanted to kill off socialism," he said.

"Many of the things that Margaret Thatcher was dealing with were things that had been around since the Second World War - nationalisation, communism and trade unions. These are problems of the past now. We are now arguing about the environment."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.