Margot at War

Love and Betrayal in Downing Street, 1912-1916

De: Anne deCourcy

Narrado por: Corrie James

Margot Asquith was perhaps the most daring and unconventional prime minister's wife in British history. Known for her wit, style, and habit of speaking her mind, she transformed 10 Downing Street into a glittering social and intellectual salon. Yet her last four years at Number 10 were a period of intense emotional and political turmoil in her private and public life.

In 1912, when Anne de Courcy's book opens, rumblings of discontent and cries for social reform were encroaching on all sides - from suffragettes, striking workers, and Irish nationalists. Against this background of a government beset with troubles, the prime minister fell desperately in love with his daughter's best friend, Venetia Stanley; to complicate matters, so did his private secretary. Margot's relationship with her husband was already bedeviled by her stepdaughter's jealous, almost incestuous adoration of her father. The outbreak of the First World War only heightened these swirling tensions within Downing Street.

Drawing on unpublished material from personal papers and diaries, Anne de Courcy vividly recreates this extraordinary time when the prime minister's residence was run like an English country house, with socializing taking precedence over politics, love letters written in the cabinet room, and gossip and state secrets exchanged over the bridge table.

©2014 Anne de Courcy (P)2021 Tantor

Naming of the year.

I loved it. Am blind to being able to read. Book is organized. Pls direct me to others if possible

Shenanigans at the Highest Levels of the Governmnt

Shenanigans at the Highest Levels of the British Government

It was an age of manners, reputations and... shenanigans. I am reading this as a companion to Robert Harris' Precipice and it makes for rather interesting lenses for examining the pre-war period of WWI.

Corrie James does a fine job of narrating this book.

I recommend this book for its keen insights.