Quintin Jardine's blog

Thank you for your message, and for the time you invested in composing it. Your support of my work and your perspective on it is much appreciated. It’s informative also; your view on gun control is one I hadn’t appreciated, but I do now. I might not agree with it, but I understand it, and that’s the important thing, as I believe you’ll agree. I’d like to address two of your comments.

The first is that if some of my characters appear to be anti-American, it does not follow that the accusation should apply to me. I’m trying to create an imaginary  world that’s populated by all types of person and reflects many shades of opinion, of which the majority are probably not mine. In fact, I have American family on either coast, and many American friends. If I might be provocative, I’d suggest that the people of your nation should be more concerned by what many of you appear to think of each other, than about what’s happening outside.

The second is Tony Blair: I understand exactly what you’re saying about him and about his unwavering support for America immediately after 9/11. Incidentally, my immediate concern as I saw that outrage unfold was for my sister-in-law’s husband who spent a good chunk of his working life in the WTC. Luckily he wasn’t there when it came down. I’ve read George Bush’s account of that time, Blair’s own, and others. I’ve come to consider that as the pinnacle of his premiership. Unfortunately, in the eyes of many British people he took his support too far thereafter, in committing the British troops to the invasion of Iraq on the basis of allegations that were unsullied by any evidence. In the eyes of some others, QJ among them, he probably did the right thing for the wrong reason, but with a lack of long-term planning or any proper vision of what would follow after. That has made Tony something of a Pariah among those who fell at his feet when he was first elected fifteen years ago, and left him looking more and more like a rabbit in the headlights whenever he’s called to appear before the unending ‘Inquiries’, that have become a bane of British life. It’s nice to know that someone still loves him.