Asquith was an ass in Robert Harris’ latest exquisite fact and fiction weave, PRECIPICE.
It’s 1914, and the peace of the world is on the precipice. The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, is smitten with a young, aristocrat, half his age, Venetia Stanley, which puts him on the precipice of practical common sense.
To hell with sensitive state secrets, the defence of the realm and the bigger picture, this lust struck, love sick married man is so in thrall of the young woman, he shares classified information with her, taking his eye off the ball in the game that will culminate in the calamity of the Great War.
Such flagrant indiscretions begin a clandestine investigation by the security services, and a young officer, Deemer, is assigned the case. Through surveillance and interception, he gathers an incisive intelligence about the pair.
“She was funny and clever; she had spirit. The prime minister on the other hand, shocked him constantly: his appalling recklessness, his endless lunches and dinners and games of bridge, his possessiveness of a woman half his age, his betrayal of his wife.”
Asquith’s apparent abrogation of responsibility in actually governing is appalling, illustrated not just in the losses in Europe and the Dardanelles, but domestically as well.
“A wave of anti German rioting swept the major cities. In London alone a hundred and fifty shops owned by naturalised Germans and Austrians were attacked. In Liverpool two hundred shops were guttered. In Southend, the army had to be called out to restore order.” Plus ca change!
The character of Deemer seems to sum up Harris’ fantastic sweeping narrative while commenting on his case: “It was more than ever like following a romantic novel published in instalments, its story propelled towards its inevitable climax by forces the reader could see more clearly than its characters. Deemer found himself hurrying in to work each day, not so much to monitor secret information any more as to discover what would happen next.”
Readers may be astonished to learn that all the letters quoted in the text are authentic. Astonishing indeed and a brilliant feed into the fiction. Robert Harris has harassed history and brought forth another enthralling read.
PRECIPICE by Robert Harris is published by Hutchinson Heinemann
