Precipice by Robert Harris
A revelatory account of the key love affair between British Prime Minister H.H. Asquith and a distinguished socialite 35 years his junior — and the near-treasonous correspondence between them amid the Nice Struggle.
Robert Harris, best-selling creator, tv correspondent and journalist for the Sunday Occasions and Every day Telegraph has written Precipice, an distinctive work of historic fiction. It’s a beautiful, revelatory and completely fascinating account of the key largely epistolary love affair between Liberal Get together Prime Minister H.H. (Henry Herbert) Asquith and Venetia Stanley, a 35 -years-younger socialite from a distinguished and rich household.
Their clandestine correspondence and romance started in 1912 and concluded virtually three years later when in Could, 1915, Venetia advised him of her engagement to Edwin Montagu, his pal, Member of Parliament and Cupboard member first as Beneath-Secretary of State for India, subsequent as Monetary Secretary to the Treasury. Asquith declared he was “completely heart-broken” and ended their frequent correspondence. The Britannica Dictionary defines Precipice as “1) a really steep aspect of a mountain or cliff and a couple of) a degree the place hazard, bother, or problem begins.” This Prime Minister had a slender escape getting ready to catastrophe and shame. It’s actually neither uncommon nor unusual for a younger lady to be drawn to a robust older man neither is it significantly noteworthy for an influential politician to have flirtations, flings and affairs. Nevertheless, to have a person of 60 so besotted as to betray army and state secrets and techniques to his beloved mistress throughout wartime was tantamount to treason. His status would have been destroyed and the result of the battle might have been endangered if the secrets and techniques had been divulged. As an alternative of Rule, Britannia, it may need been Heil, Germania had Venetia Stanley not been a completely reliable keeper of secrets and techniques and dependable topic to the Crown.
Robert Harris targeted on the occasions main as much as WWI starting Precipice in the summertime of 1914 and concluding it with the tip of the affair in mid-1915. In depth quotations from the letters compulsively written by H.H. Asquith are included. These are genuine as are the telegrams, newspaper articles and official paperwork cited. The correspondence from Venetia Stanley talked about in his letters is just not extant; probably burned by Asquith himself. Thus her responses are fabricated by the creator’s vivid creativeness to offer steadiness.
Additional embellishing the intrigue, the creator invented a key character, Paul Deemer, a brave younger intelligence officer with Scotland Yard who’s tasked with investigating a leak in secret paperwork. He uncovers a stunning sexual intrigue that may be a matter for nationwide safety and goes undercover to intercept and duplicate their correspondence. Reality and fiction are seamlessly blended on this thrilling thriller.
H.H. Asquith, essentially the most highly effective man in the UK, second solely to King George V, did share delicate telegrams, letters and Cupboard discussions containing top-secret details about troop placements, battle plans and armaments with Venetia. By startling distinction, some Cupboard, naval and army commanders weren’t as effectively knowledgeable.
In chatty, gossipy love notes he wrote overtly about England’s management together with Winston Churchill, Lord Kitchener, David Lloyd George and others and the political intrigues and rivalries between them. Had H.H. Asquith’s correspondence with Venetia Stanley come to gentle throughout his time period of workplace, it will have been an explosive bombshell of a political intercourse scandal that might have overshadowed any of the identified extramarital relationships involving Prime Ministers or Members of Parliament and rocked the very basis of the federal government.
British mail was the most likely essentially the most environment friendly on the earth within the mid-19th to early 20th century. With the introduction in 1840 of the Penny Black, the world’s first adhesive postage stamps, letters might be dropped in any put up field or left for pickup in properties and workplaces with mail effectively delivered an astounding twelve instances every day. The PM wrote obsessively to Venetia, as typically as two or 3 times every day, complaining in successive letters if she did not promptly reply.
The worldwide conflagration and battle efforts troubled by inadequate munitions and the stunning every day dying toll of UK’s troopers entrenched on the entrance traces was sadly not receiving the eye it required of him. The Gallipoli Marketing campaign was changing into a monumental slaughterhouse and army catastrophe. Asquith additionally appeared oblivious to critical points at residence such because the rising violent calls for for Irish Residence Rule and Ladies’s Suffrage. Throughout debates within the Home of Commons and in Cupboard conferences he was noticed to be blithely scribbling away.
Friday afternoons have been reserved for 2 hour or extra carriage rides with Venetia with blinds drawn to masks non-public conversations. He overtly mooned over her like a lovesick schoolboy at balls and home events whereas being protected by their households and social set that weren’t blind to the circumstances.
Robert Harris acknowledges a debt of gratitude to the Bonham Carter Household and fellow trustees of the paperwork for allowing him to cite from Asquith’s letters. Dr. Mark Potter who’s engaged on publication of Margot Asquith’s pre-war journals additionally offered him entry to his work.
There are 8 bins containing 560 letters to Venetia, some 300,000 phrases, archivally maintained on the Oxford College Bodleian Library which solely got here to gentle in 1963, 15 years after Venetia Montagu’s dying. His daughter Violet Bonham Carter had been unaware of their existence and fervently wished to guard and protect her father’s status. The literary rights are retained underneath the management of the Bonham Carter Household. Household pal Roy Jenkins was allowed entry with sure omissions stipulated when he wrote H.H. Asquith’s biography, printed in 1964. Oxford College Press printed roughly half of the edited letters in 1982.
Precipice is an exhilarating, efficient novel which can stimulate the curious to learn extra concerning the individuals concerned, World Struggle I and different occasions of the period. To that finish, Robert Harris has included a quick however effective bibliography. Nearly surprisingly, the creator didn’t criticize the errant Prime Minister for his tender affections in the direction of Venetia (and former intrigues) however targeted on his woeful inattention to essential wartime political affairs.
Herbert Henry Asquith, b. September 12, 1852, d. February 15, 1928
H.H. Asquith, chief of the Liberal Get together was thought-about to be the founding father of the welfare state in England. He served as Prime Minister of the UK for practically 9 years from April 5, 1908 till December 5, 1916 throughout which period he was accountable for the Parliament Act of 1911 that lowered the ability of the Home of Lords. He was an excellent scholarship scholar at Oxford College, an exemplary orator who served as a barrister earlier than starting his political profession. H.H. loved the earthly comforts of effective meals and a conspicuous fondness for drink that earned him the sobriquet “Squiffy.”
His lengthy affair with Venetia Stanley was not his first however was important as she was probably the lady he most beloved. His first marriage to Helen Kelsall Melland, a doctor’s daughter, ended after 14 years when she died of typhoid fever whereas they have been on vacation in Scotland. He was left with 5 younger kids to boost: Raymond, Herbert, Arthur, Violet and Cyril.
Eldest son Raymond, an exemplary scholar and barrister, at age 36 with a spouse and three kids underneath the age of seven, was commissioned in December, 1914 as a second lieutenant within the 16th Battalion. Together with his robust sense of patriotism, he requested to be transferred into lively responsibility and was killed in motion on the Somme on September 15, 1916.)
Lower than 3 years after Helen’s dying, H.H. married Margot Tennant, 12 years his junior. She was an aristocratic, mental lady and an outstanding hostess identified for her gossipy wit and glamour although not nice magnificence. She introduced a considerable non-public revenue together with entry into the best echelons of society. After a considerably disadvantaged childhood, he embraced the nice life as if to the manor born, savoring full of life conversations and the total assortment of social occasions out there to these with prepared funds.
Margot bore him 5 kids however solely two survived. Elizabeth grew as much as marry a Romanian prince whereas the youngest member of the family Anthony grew to become a well-regarded movie director. Margot was warned by her doctor one other being pregnant might kill her and ceased sexual relations together with her husband resulting in separate bedrooms and carte blanche to discreet affairs. His sons with Helen have been in boarding college or college and rarely underneath the identical roof as Margot who match the depraved stepmother cliché together with her frequent clashes with Violet.
It was by his beloved daughter Violet that H.H. met Venetia Stanley. The 2 women have been the identical age and have become practically inseparable finest associates once they met in 1905 throughout their first season as debutantes. Venetia was the spoiled youngest of seven kids of the fabulously rich Stanley household who owned three massive estates. One nation residence contained sixty bedrooms. She was assured, self-possessed, tall and slim with a effective wardrobe. Hers was an arresting face fairly than one in all traditional magnificence. Venetia was very smart, deeply concerned with politics and possessed a terrific sense of journey.
The 2 younger ladies have been members of a “quick” crowd often known as “The Coterie” who drank, smoked cigarettes, often gambled, used medication, and have been in a continuing social whirl enabled by their social positions and household wealth. Starting in 1909, Violet and Venetia accompanied H.H. and infrequently Edwin Montagu on lengthy holidays whereas Margot stayed behind with the 2 youngest kids. Asquith doted on his daughter and her girlfriends and even Margot referred to them as his “little harem.” H.H. Asquith confessed in an early letter that he immediately fell in love with Venetia in 1912 whereas they have been on trip in Sicily with daughter Violet and his chum Edwin.
Precipice is such a captivating revelatory novel, one may want Robert Harris had added to the readers’ curiosity and pleasure by together with an extended chapter dedicated to the singular Violet Asquith. She was a drive of nature in her personal proper, a lifelong shut pal of Winston Churchill, enamored with the good-looking poet Rupert Brooke who died tragically from sepsis brought on by a mosquito chew.
On November 30, 1915, she married Maurice Bonham Carter often known as “Bongie” with whom she had 4 kids. Violet had identified him for years as he was a household pal and served as her father’s Principal Non-public Secretary. Violet, ever lively in liberal politics, was a fervently outspoken anti-fascist, supporter of the humanities, famous biographer and diarist. In 1964, she was created life peer Baroness Asquith of Yarnbury by Queen Elizabeth II.
The Bonham Carter distinguished household line contains notable actresses’ granddaughter Helena Bonham Carter and great-granddaughter Anna Chancellor. In 1969, Woman Violet Bonham Carter died of a coronary heart assault on the age of 81. It’s unlikely she would have authorised of the perceived criticism of her beloved father however readers are sure to get pleasure from Precipice.
Publish Date: September 17, 2024
Style: Historic Fiction, Thrillers
Creator: Robert Harris
Web page Depend: 464 pages
Writer: Harper
ISBN: 9780063248052