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Meadow

Meadow is a self-identified “deluded leftist” hailing from Croydon, South London. More specifically, his views place him on the left of the Labour Party, as he is a committed, and sometimes extreme, Democratic Socialist. He joined AH.com in April 2010 and, in spite of this, came down from Leeds in July 2012 with a Upper Second Class BA in History.

Bears a terrifying resemblance to Chloe Smith. Is part Danish, but everyone always manages to forget this just in time for him to make an offhand reference to it and surprise everyone all over again.

He also writes for a local political online newspaper, the Croydon Citizen, which went into print in January 2014. Meadow now oversees the production of this print edition as a full time job.


Timelines

Listed in order of creation.

The People's Flag

An anarcho-syndicalist British republic emerging out of the ashes of defeat in The Great War may sound far-fetched, but that's before the Second American Civil War and National Bolshevik Mussolini get involved. Meadow's first TL on AH.com, it was an attempt to create a plausible 'history book' setting for the Kaiserreich mod for Hearts of Iron 2, a mod explicitly designed to be 'cool and fun' rather than historically plausible. A fool's errand, perhaps, but it was fun to write. Despite its success (it won Best New Early 20th Century at the 2011 Turtledoves) Meadow has not updated it since September 2011, and it may well forever hang on the cliffhanger that was the outbreak of the Second Great War.

Irrevocable Determination

A collaborative TL with RogueBeaver with two PODs: FDR loses the Governor's race in New York and thus the 1932 Presidential nomination, while Edward VIII ascends early due to George V's death from influenza. His marriage to Wallis Simpson is therefore butterflied (she ends up marrying Lord Beaverbrook) and the King's more thrusting, personal interest in politics leads to some small butterflies in British politics having enormous long-term results. It has been on indefinite hold since 2011 and is unlikely to ever be completed.

Gordon Pulls It Off

A collaborative TL with The Red that tries its hardest to construct a plausible scenario whereby the Labour Party can win a majority at the 2010 election with a POD no earlier than 2009. The Red and Meadow have expressed an interest in reviving (or perhaps relaunching) this rather dormant TL as soon as they can.

The Accidental Prime Minister

An attempt to find the worst possible time for a 20th century PM to die in office saw Meadow construct a scenario where Harold Wilson fell down the stairs a week before resigning to make way for Jim Callaghan. The largely unknown and untested former Headmaster Ted Short becomes Prime Minister by virtue of his position as Labour Party Deputy Leader. Originally titled 'I can't become Prime Minister, not at this time of night!' it was relaunched in June 2013 in an attempt by Meadow to actually get it finished.

Agent Lavender: The Flight of Harold Wilson

A collaborative TL with Lord Roem. Asking the simple question of 'what if those who thought Harold Wilson was a KGB agent were right?' this narrative TL sees the Prime Minister flee London in the dead of night in November 1975, leading to a lengthy police chase around Norfolk and a constitutional farce that soon turns very ugly indeed. It came fourth in the vote for 'Best New Cold War TL' in the 2013 Turtledoves and surged to win multiple awards in the 2014 Turtledoves, including Best Continuing Cold War.

For Want Of A Paragraph

Initially attempted as a TLIAW, this TL ran for a month rather than a week and explored David Miliband's abortive leadership challenge in 2008. Asking what would have happened if he had shown more backbone and attempted to challenge Gordon Brown directly, it was praised for high drama, strong characterisation and an awareness of how different the recent past can often be.

TLIADs

In early 2013, Meadow invented the term (but not the concept) of 'TimeLine In A Day', a practice whereby AH writers, perhaps prone to writers' block, would be forced to set themselves a 24 hour deadline to write a completed TL, posting updates live as soon as they are finished. So far, he has written two, with plans for more. The format has become popular with other writers as well: see the full article for details.

  • Things Can Really Get Worse - Taking a cue from John O'Farrell's excellent 'Things Can Only Get Better', Meadow decided to explore 'a plausible look at an ASB POD' by positing a scenario whereby, somehow, John Major was returned to office in 1997. The result saw Ken Clarke in Number 10, a Labour-Lib Dem Coalition and John Reid proving to be so much worse than anyone imagined.
  • I Am A Legend - What if Boris Johnson hadn't become Mayor of London in 2008? Over the course of 48 hours (insufficient planning and an unexpected trip into the real world on the evening of Day 1 ended up disqualifying this from being a 'true' TLIAD), Meadow produced a story that took the blonde-haired Conservative from London to the Shadow Cabinet, from there to a stint as Home Secretary, then Prime Minister and beyond. Notable for having an alternate ASB ending that readers can choose to believe as the 'true ending' if they so wish.
  • Meet The New Boss - George Lansbury somehow survives as Labour Party leader and leads a hyper-pacifistic government after the 1935 General Election. With Britain defenseless in 1940, it falls to Operation Sea Lion and endures six years of puppet rule under Lloyd George. In 1946, however, it is 'liberated' by the Red Army, and becomes a Soviet satellite state. The bulk of the TLIAD is about that Soviet satellite, called the Commonwealth of Great Britain.
  • Shuffling The Deck - A collaborative TL with Lord Roem, this TLIAD turned into more of a TLIAW, but won widespread acclaim for its novel premise: all the post-1945 British Prime Ministers are the same, but they come to power at different times and are remembered very differently. The outcome is a wildly popular Jim Callaghan, a largely-forgotten Margaret Thatcher, and, of course, 'ShittyMac'.
  • Zonen - An attempt to explore alternative narrative styles in AH works, Zonen is told by an anonymous journalist visiting Denmark in the present day. He interviews various figures who have links to the ATL Danish zone of occupation in post-war West Germany. The TL featured no major butterflies, but ended on a personal note, showing that the consequences of a major POD don't always have to involve earth-shattering long term consequences.

Vignettes

Awards

For his many great additions to AlternateHistory.com and the online alternate history writers' community in general, Meadow was awarded an Outstanding Contributions Award at the 2016 Turtledove Awards.

In addition, he has won a Turtledove Award in:


Sealion Press

In July 2015, Meadow also founded Sea Lion Press, a small publishing label for various e-book published works originating on AH.com. As of late November 2016, it also offers paperback versions of these books (though not all yet, the portfolio is still growing).

Meadow's own Zonen, Boristopia and Meet the New Boss TLIADs, his For Want of a Paragraph timeline and the Agent Lavender timeline and Shuffling the Deck TLIAD he both co-wrote with Lord Roem, are now among the books on offer (see links).


Politics

As stated above, Meadow is a committed left winger, with a particular view to nationalisation of key utilities and the railways. In June 2012, he was elected Leader of the AH.com Labour Party after a nailbiting leadership election against Lord Roem and Broader Liberty. The latter's withdrawal from the race gave Meadow the necessary one vote to win the leadership. Lord Roem, however, was shortly afterward elected Deputy Leader, and Meadow made him Shadow Secretary of State for Transport and Infrastructure, while Broader Liberty became Party Chairman and Shadow Business and Innovation Secretary. The Labour Party are hot favourites to win the AH.com Mock Election, whenever it eventually happens.

One area where Meadow has noted he may be more right wing than usual is education, though his actual views on the subject are complex and would not fit in with any particular political position. He blames this on his time working as a teaching assistant in a school, as well as his background as the son of two education professionals.


Social

Meadow is a keen Politibrit (though he tried to make their name 'the Brit Pack' without success). He can be found on most days making sardonic remarks at the expense of the government, the Tory members of the site, or CCM.

He has attended a great many of the regular British meetups for AH.com. In real life, he is a friend of Lord Roem's, although they initially met on the site. He and V-J, while not actually having an online gay love affair, are also particularly close off-site. He also shares a bond with The Red.


offtopic/meadow.txt · Last modified: 2020/02/10 19:20 by eofpi

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