I started Neuromancer years ago and found I didn’t have the patience, at that time, to immerse myself in Gibson’s world. I came to The Peripheral rather indirectly.

This is despite Gibson’s reputation and his established importance to Science Fiction and cyberpunk after his first novel, Neuromancer. RAF Scampton was the base for the Red Arrows until last year.The Peripheral is the first William Gibson novel I’ve read. In March, news emerged of government plans to use RAF Scampton as a site for up to 2,000 asylum seekers, with the council launching legal action because of the impact it would have on a £300 million regeneration project for the site.įorty of Britain’s leading historians - including Sir Antony Beevor, Sir Max Hastings and Dan Snow - have written an open letter to Mrs Braverman, claiming the plans would be an “act of cultural desecration”. It said it would be “better” to return the grave and remains to 617 Squadron, based at RAF Marham in King’s Lynn, which would “take care of the story for the foreseeable future”. It believed “the grave site is at risk and carries a significant reputational risk, given the racial slur now associated with the dog’s name”. The RAF heritage team’s application to West Lindsey District Council said there was “now no guarantee of a sustainable, focused future for Scampton with careful management and interpretation of the story of the raid and Wg Cdr Gibson’s dog”. Roger Patterson, the council’s vice-chairman and a Scampton councillor, said proposals to move the grave were a “kick in the teeth for the community”, adding that “it’s part of our heritage and has been there for 80 years.” Mr Justice Kerr dismissed the application after considering arguments from lawyers representing the council and Mrs Braverman at a High Court hearing in London. The council claims Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, acted unlawfully by failing to take account of its £300 million plan to preserve the base’s historic runway as an aerospace hub and new national heritage site, which will collapse as a result.

West Lindsey District Council asked a judge in London to impose an interim injunction to prevent the Home Office moving “materials, equipment or people” on to land at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire. The local council, which has sought to block the asylum camp plan, has lost the opening round of its High Court fight. The dog died on the day of the famous “bouncing bomb” raid on German dams by 617 Squadron in 1943. The grave honouring The Dambusters’ dog could be moved from its historic wartime base because of plans to convert the site into a migrant camp.Īn RAF heritage team has put in an application to transfer the grave and any remains of The Dambusters’ mascot, a black Labrador retriever, from RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire to the squadron’s base in Norfolk.

Agency by William Gibson