Guy Colchester is an obedient servant in a very British civil service. His world is turned upside down when he is asked to undertake secret work involving weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East. The difficulty is knowing who in this upside down secret world he is really working for, what the weapons are and which part of the Middle East is in question.
The Disobedient Servant is a political thriller in the tradition of Graham Greene, with a touch of Eric Ambler. Set in the dying days of the Cold War, it tells the story of a cog that gradually works loose in the whirring machinery of government, with destabilising effects for all concerned.
'Like Graham Greene and Eric Ambler, British former civil servant and speech-writer Ackland understands that contemporary espionage involves more bureaucrats than spies. In this intelligently constructed debut thriller, the unlikely protagonist is one Guy Colchester, a lowly official in the Ministry of Exports, a Walter Mitty without the daydreams.'
Publishers Weekly
'Beguiling first fiction - part thriller and part rite of passage... Ackland, a former civil servant, effectively mines his own past to give this tale a nice gloss of authenticity. A literate romp through the bureaucracy with plenty of danger and riveting excitement.'
Kirkus Reviews