Subiaco Post - 12th May 2001 - (Australia)
Former spin doctor spins a good yarn
Subiaco author David Michie has just published his second thriller, following the huge international success of last year's Conflict of Interest.
"I enjoyed it more", he said of Pure Deception, which was released in hardback last month along with the no paperback addition of Conflict.
Thrillers are what Michie loves to write, and they all revolve around the world he knows best, public relations.
The Rhodesian-born author has worked in PR for 15 years, specialising in strategic planning and consulting for some of London's biggest PR companies.
David's first book was a non-fiction exposé of Britain's most powerful spin doctors, showing how, in a country that consumes 28 million newspapers and watches and average of three and half hours of television every day, the media is influenced, guided and direct by the PR industry.
The Invisible Persuaders revealed the strategies of the country's most powerful, influential and invisible men, the financial, corporate, political and celebrity public relations experts.
David claims that in the industry maxim, "the best PR is never noticed", applies to not only those who read and believe every day, but to those journalists actually regurgitating it.
One PR guru is quoted is quoted saying that 80% of what appears in business pages and 40% to 50% of general news has been produced or directly influenced by PR practitioners.
Having gone through the "torturous process" of the libel reading the Invisible Persuade and having some of the best bits cut out, David came to the conclusion that the only way to truly report what goes on in some PR firms was to write it all as fiction.
Pure Deception exposes the techniques used in the manufacturing and selling of celebrities. How much of what we say, read and here of film stars and pop singers is real and how much illusion? And when do the stars themselves stop being able to tell the difference?
Pure Deception follows two distinct, very fast-paced story lines which converge and climax, with, like all goods thrillers, an unexpected twist.
Mark Watson is an amateur singer in south London. Picked by talent scouts to record an album with a famous pop icon, Isis, his breathtaking plunge into the celebrity world is a dangerous illusion.
Torturing
Meanwhile, and animal liberation paramilitary group, One Commando, is recently campaigning to expose Berkeley Square cosmetic company for using and torturing animals in its testing laboratory.
The terrorists have already vigorously attacked and main company's chief executive. When Berkeley Square signs and endorsement deal with Mark and Isis, they become the focus for terrorists' next attacked.
Dreams of fame and fortune quickly turned into nightmare for Mark as he tries to both to second guess One Commando's plans and to uncover Isis's terrible secret.
For David, constructing a plot is like a chess game.
"If the reader of thillers enter an understanding with the author to match wits and, like chess game, each thinks they have out witted the other.
"First and foremost I want to thrill people," insisted David Michie. "But I also want to put forward contemporary issues."
In Conflict of Interest the issue focuses on a sports manufacturer and the company's suspected use of the overseas child labour.
Pure Deception highlights the public obsession with pop stars and the problem off animal testing.
"There's a complacency about this issue these days," said David, a committed vegetarian.
When we say no animal testing, do the companies immediately stop? Bollocks!
"They just go off and find an outside laboratory that will do it for them.
David's third novel Expired Date, which he has just finished writing, deals with the subject of biogenetic engineering.
As David points out, while we are aware, albeit often complacent, about the issues of animal testing, growth of hormones, pesticides, mass production, artificial additives and genetic engineering, we have little idea that the information we're given on these subjects is equally well manipulated and engineered