Gridlock (novel) Gridlock (novel) Gridlock is a 1991 novel by Ben Elton. The novel depicts a near-future London in which traffic congestion has reached almost critical levels, such that accidents in a few key places could bring the entire city's traffic network to a halt. The government is aware of the problem and plans a major new road-building program to relieve the pressure. The alternative, heavy investment in public mass transport systems such as railways, is ignored because it clashes with the government's ideology. The author argues that this is a highly misguided policy since, in his view, more roads have historically
The Spook Who Sat by the Door (novel) for gay rights movements had become visible in the public sphere. Sociologically, it is suggested that the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) – whose symbol was a seven-headed cobra – were influenced in their choice of name by Greenlee's use, in the novel, of the word "symbiology", a term derived from the biological term "symbiosis", which describes disparate organisms living together in a mutually beneficial relationship. The original UK book-jacket for "The Spook Who Sat by the Door" carried endorsements by the political activist Dick Gregory, who called the novel "an important, original, nitty-gritty book"; by the novelist Len Deighton, who