As mrs maytrees and I hope to see the film Conclave also by Robert Harris at its Wimbledon pre-view, this afternoon, a blog post about his new book Precipice, which I have just finished, seems apt.
The comments on the back cover of the book summarise much of the book's contents, though for me all 450 pages were a absorbing read. Precipice's back cover note reads:
He had a good view of Venetia Stanley as she climbed out of the limousine. She was handsome rather than beautiful - lithe, vivacious, her face flushed from a day on the beach. He could see why the Prime Minister might be in love with her. But to share so many state secrets with a young woman less than half his age, to send them through the ordinary post, and to show her decrypted telegrams - that was beyond love, surely? That was a kind of madness."
The question not answered in the book but discussed elsewhere, is of course whether they were actually lovers. My own view is...
The first world war was about to begin yet the Liberal Prime Minister responsible for leading the UK into that dreadful maelstrom in which ultimately some 8 million souls were lost, was absorbed in his 26 year old young woman. Having said that neither Prime Minister H.H. Asquith nor the UK more generally, were responsible for starting the Great War.
My personal view is that the UK should not become embroiled in wars other than those directly affecting its citizens. The Falkland Islands war was the only such war in my lifetime.
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