About the book

A Japanese company threatens to plunder the hardwood forests of South-East Asia, but it comes up against a mysterious group of businessmen with a mission to save the world's resources. From the boardrooms of Europe to the high tech companies of Japan, interpreter Gilbert Langton has to juggle international politics, business manoeuvres, and his love for a brilliant and beautiful woman. Autumn 1990. The world is teetering on the edge of war in the Gulf, Germany is reunited and a crumbling USSR stares ruin in the face. In Japan, a group of powerful men and women gather to create a rescue plan that will bring all three countries together for the first time in fifty years. Polyglot international publisher Gill Langton is mediator-in-chief. Treading the highest wire of global power-broking, he alone can balance politics with intrigue, manoeuvre with counter-manoeuvre. But his love for the beautiful, enigmatic Martha could bring it all tumbling down. 'Morris West is a remarkably consistent exponent of a dying art-the production of literate and intelligent bestsellers.' The Sunday Times 'The Ringmaster, a political thriller set in post-Cold War Asia, is certainly one of West's best.' Goodreads review