Birds of Passage (novel)

Birds of Passage
Main character(s):	Ian, Allison, Rachel
Featuring:	Bill Bishop, Anne Bishop
Key crew
Publisher:	Candy Jar Books
Writer:	Robert Mammone
Release details
Release number:	1
Release date:	4 January 2022

Birds of Passage was the first novel in the Candy Jar Counter Measures series, released in 4 January 2022.

Publisher's summary

The Cold War is in full swing as the British Government, in partnership with Woden Armaments, launches the Cerberus satellites into orbit, transforming world wide communications.

But all is not as it seems. Retired Air Vice Marshal Ian Gilmore is reluctantly drawn into helping an embattled government. Despatched to a divided Germany, he soon finds himself on the wrong side of the Berlin Wall as he helps a Soviet engineer with a terrible secret defect to the West.

Back home, Professor Rachel Jensen discovers her work at Cambridge has been perverted by Woden Armaments. When the Cerberus launch team, including Allison Williams and Anne Travers, goes missing, Rachel begins an investigation that unearths a terrible conspiracy at the heart of the British Establishment – a conspiracy that threatens the entire world!

Plot

to be added

Characters

• Ian Gilmore
• Allison Williams
• Rachel Jensen
• Bill Bishop
• Anne Bishop

References

• Mission Control for the launches is in Devesham. (TV: The Android Invasion)
• The mass immigration from Hong Kong and racist reactions to it echo the real-world arrival of Asian immigrants from East African countries in 60s/70s Britain. The book implies Hong Kong will soon be getting returned to China as part of the Auderly House Accords, which didn't happen until 1997; the immigration caused by this may reference the increased migration of Hong Kongers in the early 2020s, when the book was being written.
• Harry Whately makes innuendo about Jeremy Thorpe's sexual interests, an implicit slur about Thorpe being gay.
• A racist poster uses Fu Manchu imagery.
• James Salisbury remembers the British nuclear tests at Maralinga.

Notes

• The book makes Rachel Jensen into a Polish immigrant.

First announcement

The initial cover for the book

• The book was originally announced on 25th July 2019 as being written by J Frank Andreas, due out in 2020 with a sequel in 2021. It had a notably different cover (including the tagline "They took his wife - big mistake!") and blurb. The book was then delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Andreas having to step down. The plot was changed after Robert Mammone was assigned to the protect.

• The original blurb and plot was:

"In the 1960s Ian Gilmore led a special military group that dealt with the unusual and the unexplained. Including, occasionally, aliens. They were the Intrusion Countermeasures Group. Eventually it was determined the group was no longer needed, and soon other organisations took their place; like the Fifth Operational Corps and UNIT.

"Almost a decade later, Air Vice Marshal Gilmore is looking forward to his retirement, enjoying life as a father and husband. But a someone is out to discredit him and the work he did, targeting both him and his family! Soon, Gilmore has no choice but to go on the run in an effort to protect his son. Only there is a further complication.

"The think-tank that his wife was involved in has disappeared. Help appears in the form of Major Bill Bishop of the Fifth Operational Corps, and former member of the Intrusion Countermeasures Group, Allison Williams. Together they will attempt to uncover the architects of the conspiracy, and rescue both Gilmore’s and Bishop’s wives; Anne Travers and Rachel Jensen!

"From the creative minds of Andrew Cartmel, Andy Frankham-Allen and Ben Aaronovitch comes a new thriller series featuring characters originally created for Doctor Who."

Continuity

• While the exact year is never given, "Alistair" is referred to as in command of UNIT; Candy Jar's PROSE: The Enfolded Time has him leaving sometime in 1976.
• Mammone has said these books do not tie into the Big Finish Counter-Measures series. The audios had Gilmore and Jensen operating in a 'New Counter-Measures' team in the 1970s, not covered in the book, and did not give them a son.
• The political background of the story is that Jeremy Thorpe is Prime Minister (TV: The Green Death) and Reginald Styles had successfully negotiated peace deal with China, the Auderly House Accords. (TV: Day of the Daleks)
• Kofi Bambera mentions a daughter, Winifred.
• Woden was part of the XK-5 space freighter project and the craft's loss is rumoured to be due to them pushing the project too quickly. James Salisbury accuses Woden of not providing any support to Guy Crayford's family. (TV: The Android Invasion)
• The Cerberus satellites are launched by XK-7 rockets. (TV: The Android Invasion)
• Rachel says that Gilmore was instrumental in getting the Home-Army Fifth Operational Corps formed. (PROSE: The Dogs of War)
• The girl used for the Dalek battle computer has been left severely mentally traumatised. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks) Later on in the story, she is called Judith, a name first established by PROSE: In the Community.

External links

• Official Birds of Passage page at Candy Jar Books