This evening I read a fascinating article in Parliamentary Affairs, by Stephen Fielding entitled ‘Fiction and British Politics: Towards an Imagined Political Capital?’ Borrowing from a burgeoning scientific literature in the US, Fielding’s introductory piece describes how and why art and artifice are central to politics: ‘before one of the most elemental concepts – the nation – could exist in reality it had to be ‘imagined’ by those who read newspapers – and novels.’ ‘Fiction fills a gap left by lack of personal experience, helping to create an ersatz form of political ‘knowledge’.’ There are historians who believe that Hollywood’s interwar emphasis on Americans as individuals (rather than as members of the working class) played a decisive part in the making of anti-socialist identities and, in similar vein, others argue that the political novel (Disraeli, Trollope) played ‘a significant part in the British élite’s strategy of incorporating newly enfranchised voters within an existing system in which the Palace of Westminster was central.’ The question arises, where is the fiction about European politics? I can think of a few examples off of the top of my head: Stanley Johnson’s The Commissioner (1987 – later made into a film starring John Hurt); Bill Newton Dunn’s The Devil Knew Not (1999), Alex Hunter’s Shadows (2009)… (Is it significant that they are all thrillers?) In the nature of things, a body of EU fiction is more likely to develop through television. True, it is difficult to imagine an EU version of The West Wing (it would have to star several Presidents for a start!) but the EU does badly need to be humanised and there clearly is a creative space out there waiting to be filled…