Saved by

David Hewson

, the thriller writer and journalist (the cantankerous sod will deny the second epithet), has made his true account of the battle to save Wye, in Kent, from Imperial College - Saved - freely available on his website.

As he says, it’s now well over a year since the book was published. It is also getting on for two years since the senior management of Imperial College were exposed as liars over their plan for a science park with supporting housing on the site of Wye’s ancient agricultural college. As we managed to disclose after breaking open Imperial’s email Exchange server, that housing would have extended over hundreds of green acres around Wye and would have turned this beautiful village into a modest-sized town.

This is a story of behaviour in local government that can only be described as bordering on the corrupt, some avaricious would-be property developers in a major charitable institution and a few decent people who instinctively knew that they weren’t being told the truth.

Imperial College has now spitefully closed down Wye College and is flogging off what was, until it bagged it all for £10million, a thriving part of the University of London. At a time when agriculture is once again at the top of the political agenda, this should be a matter of deep shame to those who run what they claim is one of Europe’s top educational institutions.

That being so, David’s book is a peach - friends with no connection to Wye have told me that they felt compelled to read it in one setting. And now that he has made it freely available, I’m sure that many more people will read it and find the inspiration to turn back the anti-democratic tide that is wrecking our country.

You can read the book on David’s site here