'Brilliant study of neo-Nazi anti-Semitism ... Gillian Freeman is among the finest contemporary novelists.' - Brigid Brophy, New Statesman 'Undoubtedly the best of her novels ... an exact and finely observed account of the lunatic right-wing fringe in Britain. I recommend this very strongly.' - Oxford Mail 'Gillian Freeman's perception of psychological and sociological drives is combined with an ability to communicate them in suspenseful entertainments.... The implications grip the imagination.' - Kirkus Reviews 'Horrifying reconstruction of how a new Hitler might arise.' - Times Literary Supplement Vincent Wright is a failure. Now in his mid-thirties, he's stuck in a dead-end job as a bank clerk and still lives with his mother. But he knows who is to blame for the shortcomings in his life: blacks, Jews, and immigrants, who are responsible for most of what's wrong with Britain today. After meeting a retired army officer who shares his passion for collecting Nazi paraphernalia, Vincent has a brilliant idea: the nation needs a new leader to rescue it from its decline - why not him? As he travels the country, giving speeches and using his charisma and oratorical gifts to recruit like-minded followers to his new Britain First party, we watch in horror while Vincent begins his terrifying and seemingly inexorable rise to power.... With the recent surge in popularity of far-right political parties across Europe, Gillian Freeman's sixth novel, The Leader (1965), remains as chillingly relevant today as when first published. This edition, the first in more than 40 years, includes a new introduction by Alwyn W. Turner. Freeman's classics The Liberty Man (1955) and The Leather Boys (1961) are also available from Valancourt Books.

"Gillian Freeman is among the finest contemporary novelists." - Brigid Brophy, New Statesman "It is altogether an astonishing novel for a young woman to have written. The story describes, convincingly and touchingly, the brief, sensual affair ... between a sailor on leave and a young schoolteacher ... their frank sexual attraction for each other is given a warm and compelling context ... a novel that has the ring of truth." - Times Literary Supplement "This novel is successful in an honest and unpretentious way." - The Guardian When Freda Mackenzie, an eminently respectable young schoolteacher with a stockbroker father and a background of tennis, riding and university, meets Derek Smith, a big blond sailor from the East End of London, she tells herself that she sees him only as a challenge, that she simply enjoys watching his reactions as she introduces him to good food, good films, good music. But their friendship develops into something more: Derek awakens in Freda a latent sensuality, a passionate joy in the act of love she has never before experienced or even imagined. As their affair becomes more intense, Freda and Derek find themselves torn between their feelings for each other and their very different social backgrounds-and they have only three short weeks in which to make their choice . . . Critically acclaimed on its initial publication and later recognized by critic Mary Cadogan as "considerably in advance of its time", Gillian Freeman's first novel, The Liberty Man (1955), returns to print for the first time in almost 40 years. This edition features a new introduction by Edward Thorpe and a reproduction of the original jacket art.