Politics On the Edge Signed Edition
The instant #1 Sunday Times bestseller from the host of hit podcast The Rest Is Politics
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Vintage Publishing
Published:14th Sep '23
Currently unavailable, our supplier has not provided us a restock date
A searing insider's account of ten extraordinary years in Parliament from Rory Stewart, former Cabinet minister and co-presenter of breakout hit podcast The Rest Is Politics
'An instant classic' MARINA HYDE
'At last a politician who can write' SEBASTIAN FAULKS
'Candid, angry, funny, and self-revelatory' JONATHAN DIMBLEBY
'Exceptional' RAFAEL BEHR
The Times pick for *The Biggest Books of the Autumn*
Over the course of a decade from 2010, Rory Stewart went from being a political outsider to standing for prime minister - before being sacked from a Conservative Party that he had come to barely recognise.
Tackling ministerial briefs on flood response and prison violence, engaging with conflict and poverty abroad as a foreign minister, and Brexit as a Cabinet minister, Stewart learned first-hand how profoundly hollow our democracy and government had become.
Cronyism, ignorance and sheer incompetence ran rampant. Around him, individual politicians laid the foundations for the political and economic chaos of today. Stewart emerged battered but with a profound affection for his constituency of Penrith and the Border, and a deep direct insight into the era of populism and global conflict.
Uncompromising, candid and darkly humorous, Politics On the Edge is his story of the challenges, absurdities and realities of political life and a remarkable portrait of our age.
The perfect Christmas gift for anyone who wants to understand our current political climate.
Rarely before has the life of a government minister been described in such granular detail or with such literary flair... This book is a vital work of documentation: Orwell down the coal mine, Swift on religious excess. We should be grateful it was written and that Stewart never stopped being interesting.' -- Alan Johnson * Guardian, *Book of the Day* *
The most compelling account I have read in recent years of the ways in which the British political system makes good government nigh-on impossible -- Charlotte Ivers * Sunday Times, *Book of the Week* *
Anyone with the slightest interest in politics should get a copy of Rory Stewart's political memoir... In terms of the quality of writing, there has been nothing to approach it since the diaries of Alan Clark -- Dominic Lawson * Daily Mail *
One of the most excoriating political memoirs of modern times... Hugely entertaining, Politics on the Edge, is hard to dismiss * Evening Standard *
An eye-opening (and highly enjoyable) read for anyone interested in understanding the realities of political power in the age of populism -- Yuval Noah Harari, author of SAPIENS
Every page has somethingbeautifully and memorably expressed and something interesting I haven't come across before -- Rev. Richard Coles
An unsparing and brilliant portrait... The lying, incompetence, and treachery he depicts are all so blatant that the book should be assigned to bright young things to rid them of any remaining illusions before they put their name on a ballot * The Atlantic *
So well and often so wittily written, and so revealing about British politics from top to bottom, that it is destined to become a classic of the genre * Literary Review *
A truly absorbing and fascinating book -- Peter Hennessy * Politics Home *
This fine, perceptive book shows just how much British politics needs someone like Rory Stewart: incisive, thoughtful, far more concerned with the business of good government than with the small-time idiocies of party politics. And how typical that he should have been driven out of government, and out of politics altogether -- John Simpson
In which clever, reasonable officer-class virtue witnesses close up a historic outbreak of unreason and irresponsibility - and takes the subtlest of revenges. By producing the best-written account there will ever be of what has happened to the Conservative Party since 2010, Rory Stewart ensures that his version of events will endure when Boris Johnson is only the mouldering memory of a fright-wig -- Francis Spufford
Stewart writes with humour, elegance, sophistication, and style...he is unfailingly honest * Irish Independent *
A rallying call for those who think Westminster needs a kick up its saggy behind * The Times *
A far more compelling political memoir than many of those written by others. Anyone thinking about a career in politics should read this first * MoneyWeek *
Stewart is eloquent and indignant about duplicitousness and incompetence in modern politics * Prospect *
If you’re looking for a curtain lifter on the arcane and at time obnoxious world of Westminster…this more than fits the bill * City AM *
One of the most devastating insider accounts of Westminster I have ever read. An instant classic of political memoir. -- Marina Hyde
An excoriating picture of a shamefully dysfunctional political culture -- Rowan Williams
At last a politician who can write. Opinionated, lucid and thought-provoking -- Sebastian Faulks
Enthralling, appalling and occasionally hilarious -- Tom Stoppard
Any combination of insight, humanity, self-awareness and style in a political memoir is valuable. To achieve them all, as Rory Stewart has done, is exceptional -- Rafael Behr, author of POLITICS: A SURVIVOR'S GUIDE
How Not to be a Politician is one of the most enjoyable and revelatory political memoirs to appear in ages - beautifully written, self-mocking but insistently principled. Stewart manages to make a life in professional politics seem laughable, entirely indefensible, and yet ennobling. This is a book that will be read for decades, as a document of its time and as timeless literature. -- Steve Coll, author of GHOST WARS
Intense, funny, savage and profound. It's the best there is on life inside the modern palaces of power -- Michael Ignatieff, author of FIRE AND ASHES: SUCCESS AND FAILURE IN POLITICS
An illuminating and excoriating insight into politics and power. Candid, angry, funny, and self-revelatory -- Jonathan Dimbleby
The Rest is Politics is by a long way the most popular politics podcast in the country. * The Times *
A no-holds-barred account of what's gone wrong with modern politics, from the outspoken former Conservative minister. * Guardian, *Books to Look Out For 2023* *
Engaged but objective, candid but not gossipy, and braced with strong conviction while accepting limitation. Rory Stewart has written a book that breathes life back into the cliché 'essential reading -- Andrew Motion
ISBN: 9781787332713-S
Dimensions: 238mm x 154mm x 42mm
Weight: 700g
464 pages