Publishing News - 12th November, 1999 p15 - (UK)
Michie, Probably the best novelist in the world...
When it came time to try his hand at a novel, PR man David Michie found plenty of inspiration in the day job, as he explains
TWO
years ago, former PR analyst David Michie wrote a non-fiction
expose of the less savoury practices indulged in by
the PR Industry, The Invisible Persuaders. The Orwellian
title was used to describe a world where firms would
go to almost any length to frame their clients in the
best possible light but would also go to the same lengths
to protect their own anonymity
Famous examples in the book illustrated how the PR
Princes of Darkness weaved their spell on the media
during the cash-for-questions scandal, the divorce of
Princess Diana and Prince Charles, and the creation
of New Labour. It also took a detailed look at perhaps
the most secretive of all the PR worlds - corporate
affairs - in chapters on the trade war between British
Airways and Virgin. Michie focuses on the underbelly
of this corporate PR world in his debut novel, Conflict
of Interest. It's a thriller which throws in enough
plot twists and tense set pieces to keep John Grisham
fans happy while they await his next book, but which
also contains the added attraction of providing an insider's
view of a world about which most people are oblivious.
"I am exposing many of the things that I wrote about in The Invisible Persuaders in this book,''