LONG LIVE THE DYING LIGHT

While researching what I’m happy to report will become an article in The Washington Monthly on the use of CCTV in Great Britain, I became an admirer of the work of Henry Porter. This means I come to the Porter fan club rather late, since Henry has had a long and distinguished career as a journalist and novelist. When we were at Spy, Graydon Carter often praised Henry–this was at a time when Graydon was the only person I knew who read British newspapers, and I’m sorry that an appreciation for them wasn’t among the things I learned from him at the time–and this it was no surprise that Graydon made Henry the London editor of Vanity Fair. Today, Henry writes frequently and passionately for The Guardian, mostly on the topic of the government’s encroachments on individual liberty, and his ardor and his dedication are a wonder to behold. One feels like one is reading Thomas Paine or another of the crusading pamphleteers we so seldom see anymore (you can read his blog here.). Anyway, Henry has just published in the UK a new novel called The Dying Light, which I enjoyed immensely. The book manages to be a very smart and fast-paced thriller, while at the same incorporating all of Henry’s concerns about the encroaching power and growing threat of the Surveillance State. He paints a disturbing and all-too-plausible picture of a very near future in which democratic peoples will have sleepwalked into a world in which their ancient liberties will have nullified. I don’t know if the book will be published here–it might be too British–but it’s provocative and useful and a darn good read.