Grave Song, the latest novel by PR scribbler Graham Lancaster - chairman
of Biss Lancaster - appears to be something of an exercise in wish-
fulfilment.
I could not help noting a striking similarity between the Biss
Lancaster chairman and his hero John Blake, ‘international director of
Globecom - the third largest PR group in the world’.
Just for the record, Euro RSCG International Communications - whose
international chairman is one G. Lancaster - claims to be the fifth
largest group in the world. Unlike in real life however, Blake has been
hired to handle ‘personal PR’ for Sool Kay-Sheen, the crooked
multimillionaire and chairman of ‘SGT Industries’. Lancaster paints a
glamorous picture of life in the PR fast lane; describing a world of
stretch limousines, top level meetings and giant contracts. ‘At the end
of lunch they shook hands on the contract. Fees for the initial three
months of dollars 50,000 a month, with an initial budget not to exceed
dollars 1.5 million...’
As in real life, behind every corner lurks a 27-year-old blonde woman
with ‘long athletic legs, and all over tan and firm breasts.’ After
dealing with the limousines, women and big bucks Blake finds himself
embroiled in a ‘major international conspiracy involving computer fraud,
high finance and mass murder’.
‘I’m a middle-aged public relations man so inevitably I’m drawing on my
own knowledge of that world,’ says Lancaster. But, he adds: ‘The book is
certainly not just a vehicle for my alter ego.’
Edited by Steve Bevan
