In November 1988, Hugh John Simmonds CBE, Margaret Thatcher’s favorite speechwriter and the author’s best friend, boss and political mentor, turned up dead in a woodland glade a few miles from their sleepy suburban hometown 20 miles west of London. To learn why his best friend was murdered, Geoffrey Gilson journeyed into the dangerous world of international arms deals, covert intelligence operations and high-level political corruption and discovered a secret that explains much of contemporary history. A quest for truth which, after 20 years of high-risk adventure coupled with painstaking research and firsthand interviews, uncovered the ugly truth that, for some 30 years, the various governments of Great Britain have loaned their country’s military and intelligence services to the United States, allowing presidents from Reagan to Obama to pursue their covert foreign and military policies without the encumbrance of congressional oversight. Gilson’s book Maggie’s Hammer: How investigating the mysterious death of my friend uncovered a netherworld of illegal arms deals, political slush funds, high-level corruption and Britain’s thirty-year secret role as America’s hired gun (Trineday Publishing, ISBN 9781634240093, August 28, 2015) details his long search for the truth, undeterred by car chases, gun shots, and the deviousness of those who hold the answers. Geoffrey Gilson is a lawyer. He was active for 10 years in the British Conservative Party before pursuing a commercial career in public relations. He lives in Carrboro, North Carolina. - maggieshammer.com
