Hostage by Clare Mackintosh

AUTHOR’S NOTE

Sometimes an idea for a book floats around for a long time before it’s ready, like a seed germinating in the ground, waiting for just the right combination of sun and water. Like lots of writers, I keep a notebook of ideas, many of which never take root. Within the first few pages of that notebook are a handful of phrases. Flight attendant. Hijack threat. Save the child, or save the plane?

Some time after I wrote those words, I saw an article about the preparations for the first direct flight from London to Sydney. At that point, the longest flight I’d ever been on was thirteen hours, and the thought of adding another seven filled me with horror. I couldn’t help but think of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, where passengers are trapped on a snowbound train with a murderer in their midst. The idea of being thirty-five thousand feet in the air with nowhere to hide terrifies me, so naturally I decided to spend a year writing about it.

I love travel, and I’m very lucky that my job requires me to do a great deal of it. Lately, though, I’ve become increasingly concerned about the environmental impact of the flights I take, prompting me to evaluate whether each trip is truly necessary from a business point of view. I take trains where I can, and I try to offset my travel by making numerous small changes at home. Every little bit helps. I often sit in airport lounges, watching my fellow passengers and second-guessing their reasons for travel. Whether or not a flight is “necessary” is a subjective question, and in writing this book, I wanted to take a look at some of the perceptions and judgments that surround air travel and environmentalism. As I wrote, COVID-19 hit, and slowly countries shut down. Planes were grounded, airline staff furloughed or laid off completely. The skies cleared. Last year, I visited thirteen countries; this year, my diary is empty. It has been both unsettling and inspiring to write about an anti-aviation movement at the very moment the industry ground to a near halt, and I have been struck by the positive environmental impact evidenced in such a short space of time. It is impossible to know how the world will look in the future, but I’m quite certain it will change the way we travel forever.

I’m aware that—to put it mildly—the environmental activists in my novel are not heroes. They are fundamentalists, and fundamentalists are rarely sympathetic. So why write about extremists rather than the legion of scientists and ecologists doing valuable work in a measured, perfectly legal way? The short answer is: that would make for a very dull crime thriller. The longer answer has its genesis in Oxford, when I was a newly minted police officer. I had joined the force at a time when protests against animal testing were an almost daily occurrence, thanks to the numerous laboratories housed within university buildings. As a law enforcer, one is required to separate personal beliefs from professional exigencies, and regardless of my own views on animal testing, I was duty-bound to protect those scientists in the firing line. The vast majority of demonstrators were law-abiding, exercising their legitimate right to protest. A vocal few, however, were not. I found it fascinating that a person who cared so deeply about animals that they would devote their life to protecting them could at the same time care so little about a human that they would set fire to a family home. Is it okay to kill a person if you save an animal? How about if you save a forest? A river?

Later, I worked as a protest liaison officer: the point of contact between police and campaigners. I would sit in a room with a representative from the English Defense League, Unite Against Fascism, or Fathers for Justice and try to find common ground amid our—very different—objectives. It was fascinating work that taught me a great deal about the psychology of protest.

As I was writing the first draft of this book, a protestor grounded a London City plane bound for Dublin, delivering a lecture on climate change as cabin crew attempted to remove him. I think we’ll see more demonstrations at airports and on planes as the effects of global warming worsen: environmentalists taking more extreme action in an attempt to make their voices heard. Whatever your views on protests, it is hard to argue with the science (although a surprising number manage it). We must take action now to save the planet for future generations. Take trains, ban single-use plastic, eat less meat…there are a hundred small changes you could make today to make a big difference tomorrow.

Finally, a note of reassurance to anyone of a nervous disposition who is reluctant to get on a plane after reading this book. It is all make-believe. You are ten times less likely to be in a hijacked plane than you are to be struck by lightning, and unless you make a habit of weather watching from the middle of an open field, that isn’t very likely at all.

Thank you for reading. Safe travels.

Clare Mackintosh