No matter how bad things may be, it seems easier to imagine them getting worse rather than better, which means that Mat Coward’s ACTS OF DESTRUCTION, set in the near future, is a very rare work. Probably inspired by tales of how Cuba has sustained itself despite the US blockade, Coward’s novel, written in the style of a police procedural, takes as its given the conversion of Britain into a new commonwealth, dedicated to equality and sustainability, where all large businesses have become co-operatives, petrol-driven vehicles are infrequent and homes have converted their driveways and car-ports into small allotments.

          Times of change are never easy, and although there seems to have been no major destruction in the conversion of Britain (unlike, say, the destruction wrought in the English Civil War of the seventeenth century, or that of the Russian Revolution), there are still things to be aware of, including threats from the now fundamentalist USA, which sends kidnappers to save children for the Lord. Closer to home, where the police once sought car twockers they now seek bicycle thieves, and every factory needs a night-watchman to look after the small-holdings on the former car-parks and factory roofs, as the produce intended to be part of the workers pay is also a temptation to thieves. For thieves have not gone away.

          An earlier group of idealists, those in Paris in 1968, used to cry “Under the cobbles, the beach!” In this time, some people are still loath to lift their tarmac paths, but they might have worse reason for their reluctance than mere stubbornness, they might know that they would reveal a hidden corpse. So it is no wonder that the police still have plenty to do.

          Mat Coward had one template to work by, William Morris’s NEWS FROM NOWHERE (1890/91), which was not the first Utopia, but was one of the most complete, set in west London, rather than Coward’s north London. However, if there was one limitation in Morris’s work, it was that it described a journey without a purpose. Actually Morris had better materials closer to hand, as reading Tony Pinkney’s William Morris blog recently I have discovered that Morris was an early fan of the detective story, as was Burne-Jones. Choosing the form of a crime novel, with its skeleton of plot, provides Mat Coward with a stronger structure – readers discover the world without being given lectures, as the detectives go about their business. James Lovegrove’s 2003 dystopia, UNTIED KINGDOM, failed, lacking this structure, while Iain R. MacLeod’s THE SUMMER ISLES (2006) had it and succeeded.

          Set somewhere between John Creasey’s Gideon stories and the Bryant and May tales currently being published by Christopher Fowler, ACTS OF DESTRUCTION grew out of a one-off short story, “Back to the Land” (2002). Mat Coward has said that it is not meant to be a manifesto – I would hope so, too, given the goody-goody hypocrisy of some of the characters – but that is no reason why it should not be first of a series that explores such a brave new world.