I don't know why but I've never read any Robert Harris novels before. I was attracted to this one because of its setting in the early days of WW1.

What I liked about the book. It is very detailed in its depiction of what was happening politically at the time. We get insight into the decision making made at this time through the real life letters that HH Asquith sent to his lover, Venetia Stanley. I enjoyed reading about the lives of people at that time. The upper classes are thoroughly covered of course but we also get insight into the lives of ordinary people through the eyes of a fictional character, the special branch agent Deemer. It kept me gripped all the way through.

I don't have anything negative to say about this book. It's well researched, well written and I now have a whole catalogue of RH books to get through. Recommended especially to those who enjoy historiacal and political fiction. Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC

Really enjoyed this book which is based on the letters sent between the prime minister and his much younger lady friend. As well as a gentle romance this is a historical account of how the world was and how fiction has added to the true story of the lives we hear about. This is not a period of history that I am familiar with but I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and the characters were likeable and loathsome as the author wanted us to believe them to be.

Highly recommend this book to all who enjoy a good read, a great story based on true events and a gentle love story with some wartime memories thrown in.

Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

An intriguing historical thriller by the master storyteller Robert Harris. At the outbreak of World War One the Liberal prime minister Herbert Asquith leads the country into war and confides in the much younger and vibrant socialite Venetia Stanley the most intimate political secrets. The author uses correspondence from Asquith to Venetia in the narrative which transcends the novel to another level. Robert Harris's best novel yet. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

I found this story riveting from start to finish. Not just the relationship between Venetia and Asquith but the insights into Government thinking and behaviour rior to outbreak of World War One. Fascinating to base a book on such a huge amount of genuine letters from a Prime Minister and match with hypothetical response from his young lover..Only a truly talented and experienced author could achieve such a feat.The rythm of the book kept me truly engaged.

A great story, a mixture of fact and fiction which helps with the understanding of the historical events and the names of the political figures.
Set around the outbreak of WW1 the events leading up to the involvement of Britain is explained much more clearly than any other history book 8 have read. Details of the cabinet meetings led by Asquith are taken from letters he wrote to his confident Venetia Stanley with whom he had a very close relationship.
The fictional characters include Detective Deemer, who had the laborious job of intercepting letters between Asquith and Stanley supposedly to check for the leaking of state secrets.
I found this book a helpful insight into the politics and life of the time without it being stuffy or confusing. I also enjoyed the sub plots.

Robert Harris is a master storyteller and this book shows him utilising his skill once again.
This is an absorbing fictionalised true read about the first war prime minister’s ever growing romantic obsession and recklessness from before the first war to his eventual political downfall. You might think reading a lot of compulsive love letters and occasional meetings would have limited interest, but their offering up national secrets as love tokens changes that and indeed informs us of the flow of the events of the war and about senior politicians and military (including a rather bellicose Churchill).

The backdrop of politics and the war, which dramatically fails to be over in months (don’t they all), weaves the history and personal together. There’s also a major thread about the state security apparatus investigation into the security implications which gives things a further detective, almost thriller dimension. I take the latter to be a more fictionalised part, though believable in essence.

I’m often wary of fictionalisations of true events because it’s often not clear where one ends and the other starts. But I had no irritation on that count with this one. Most enjoyable (The author also helpfully provides a short afterword commentary.)

The personal and the political combine to spellbinding effect in this historical novel set in the summer of 1914. Based on actual letters from British Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith to his much younger lover, the socialite Venetia Stanley (her letters to him did not survive), Harris reimagines the febrile months leading up to the outbreak of World War 1.
When top-secret documents are found scattered in the British countryside detective Paul Deemer, a fictional creation, is tasked by Special Branch with finding the source of the leaks. He has encountered Venetia before when he looked into a drowning on a pleasure cruise on the Thames, but he is unprepared to discover that it is the Prime Minister himself who has been less than discreet in sharing vital strategic information with her about the frantic behind-the-scene machinations of a Europe teetering on the brink of disaster. It’s a political nightmare.
Asquith seesaws between master statesman and lovesick puppy as his lover pulls gently away from him and his position as prime minister becomes increasingly untenable. The master storyteller brilliantly illuminates high society and the origins of the war in this enlightening and entertaining read.

It’s the summer of 1914, unrest has started in Austria with an assassination. Prime Minister Asquith confides in Lady Venetia Stanley - they see each other regularly and correspond frequently. This correspondence takes on a possible security breach as he confides all cabinet conversations and telegrams. He is twice her age, both are flattered initially.
A basically true take of infatuation and the repercussions as the First World War starts to grip Europe.
Compelling and informative.

I was so lucky to be able to review this book from NetGalley

I have to say I am really late to the table with this author and wow I will be reading hos other novels.

The story is based on Asquith and Venetia original letters and wow this gave the read an insightful window into their love affair. There was more to these letters than just an affair - as World War 1 was becoming more and more of a reality and then during the war to end all wars there is a great deal of politics and decisions.

An inteligence officer is brought in to investigate a leak of top secret documents - and of course the relationship and letter is not just about sex- this could alter the course of politics and history.

So well researched and wow what a story.

A recommended read.

This was such an intriguing book.
I couldn’t quite believe that it was based on true events!
Real letters were cleverly interwoven with their imagined replies and story.

This is a real masterpiece and amazing insight in to the hubris of politics of the age. It certainly puts some of today’s political scandals into a different light.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the copy to review. I thoroughly enjoyed it!!

Love, War and Obsession: H.H. Asquith, Venetia Stanley and the 1st World War 4.5 rating

Robert Harris was a journalist before he became a novelist. This means, in his case, he is accustomed to forensic research and the investigation of facts, whilst also having the ability to give the dryness of facts, the minutes of meetings, shape, colour and vitality.

Precipice is absorbing and deeply shocking. It recounts how this country moved towards that fatal. Horrific 1914-1918 war, through the recounting of meetings by various factions and individuals in Cabinet and outside it.

The deeply shocking elements come from a single source – passionate, revealing letters disclosing information of national security, written by Liberal Prime Minister H.H. Asquith, aged 61, to 26 year old socialite Venetia Stanley. Clearly there was intense, reciprocated passion between the two. The ‘shocking’ does not lie in the fact of that mutual passion, nor even that Asquith was a married man. Rather, it is because in Asquith’s letters, at a time when this country was moving inexorably towards war, and then into war itself, Asquith was giving Venetia the details of Cabinet meeting, including proposed military actions, and even sending her decoded ‘flimsies’ detailing such actions and their results. And sending these through the post.

Venetia kept Asquith’s letters, and they came into public knowledge and as source material decades after the people involved had all died. Asquith though, destroyed her letters at some point.

So, Harris uses the reality of Asquith’s voice, and other historical sources detailing the political considerations of the day, but imagines (wonderfully) Venetia’s epistolary responses.

He also creates a fictional character, a policeman, later within the secret service, tasked with investigating potential security breaches which had come to the knowledge of some. Even if Deemer (his policeman) did not exist, there were of course those who were involved in the investigations within the security services

The only reason I couldn’t go quite to a straight 5 star rating , is because, years later, I am still so much in thrall to the brilliance of Harris’ ‘Act of Oblivion’, and ‘An Officer and a Spy’ both, similarly this wonderful combination of thorough research fleshed out with the novelist’s imagination of character, from known facts, and his ability to create dramatic, shaping narrative. I suspect long dead history may give a greater freedom to explore character.

Nonetheless, highly recommended

Typically brilliant blending of fact and cracking fiction from Robert Harris. Refreshing to see this applied to the First World War rather than the usual Second World War. Readable in the extreme and taught and thrilling blend of fact and fiction. Highly recommended.

Although the affair between the PM H H Asquith and Venetia Stanley is not a secret it is still unbelievable the the PM wrote to her, disclosing confidential war information. A well written and well researched novel that tells the story of the events around the beginning of WW1. A few subplots along the way keep this novel interesting and not just a research book full of facts.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book.

A fantastic read from an author that I knew but had never read. I'm so glad I did and will be reading his others. This was so interesting about the goings-on leading up to the first world war. Loved it. My thanks to netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

Nobody can tell a tale as well and compellingly as Robert Harris who has maintained such a high standard over the years ever since "Fatherland" stunned and amazed everybody over 30 years ago. This is no exception, a beautifully plotted and written account of an affair between the married prime minister and a lady 30 years or so younger than him but it is also so much more whorl brilliant descriptions of life in aristocratic London of 1914, the sharing of private papers and the massive political issues of the day, all tied up in a Special Branch investigation.

A compelling and fascinating brew which I relished.

This riveting read is a seamless blend of fact and fiction, and the fact in ways is more shocking than the fiction! Set in London 1914, this book provides a very unique viewpoint on the outbreak of world war one, as Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith exchanges frequent letters - and confidential information - with his mistress. This is a compelling read; even though as a reader you know exactly how world events are going to unfold, you get caught up in the personal dramas developing the main characters. A history lesson with a very human element!
Thank you to Netgalley and Random House UK, Cornerstone for the review copy.

Books by Robert Harris are always a delight and this one is no different. Looking at the topic this is not a book I would have ordinarily chosen but I was willing to try it, and this was all down to the draw of the author. I certainly wasn't disappointed, in fact this book opened my eyes to a period of history I know little about. Robert Harris has deftly woven fact and fiction to make a compelling story about the illicit affairs of the then Prime Minister. Whilst today the idea of a PM having affairs (Boris) is nothing new but Edwardian Britain is a different story, making the police cover up all the more serious. A recommended read to all.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.


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Precipice by Robert Harris is an historical novel which begins as the tensions leading to the start of World war 1 in 1914 at the start of world war 1 about an affair between Venetia Stanley and Herbert Ausquith a man also twice her age and at the time Prime minister of the UK at the time.

Precipice by Robert Harris is one of those historical novels that allows a glimpse into the world of historical figures without the restrictions of a textbook.

Apart from Asquith who is the lead character in the novel a number of other significant people appear in the story including two future British Prime Ministers Lloyd George, Winston Churchill amongst other UK politicians and notable people.

WHile we may never know what these people are like, Harris uses his skill as a writer to write real people in a way that seems to write with what is known about them.

There is a note at the start which advises the reader that the letters between Ausqith and Venetia are real ( which does take some getting used to in today's world).

But the character of Deemer is entirely made up, however you could see someone like him existing and being connected to the relationship in some way.

Of the three main characters in the novel both the real life ones Ausquth and Venetia and the policeman Deemer Robert Harris is very good at allowing readers to have sympathy with them as they all seemed to be trapped in a situation of not necessarily their own making.

Yes Asquith is the one who probably has the most control of the situation but Harries writes him in a way like a 13 year old school boy not listening in cabinet meetings and writing endless notes to a girl who he is infatuated with.

Which makes Asquith maybe not sympathised with but looked on with pity

Venetia and Deemeron the other hand are almost trapped in the situation but not of their own making and can not see a way out.

All this makes Precipice by Robert Harris an enjoyable fascinating read about people involved in a key moment of British / world history, Examining individuals in a way the historical fiction can but text books can not.

This is a superb new novel from Robert Harris. It blends the serious topic of war with daily routine- albeit it through letters between the Prime Minister Asquith and his mistress, an aristocrat Venetia Stanley. The characters are truly brought to life in this novel as Harris conveys conversations in which the reader feels like they are eavesdropping. We come across Churchill, Haldene and Kitchner and their heated discussions as the war progresses with horrendous casualties. Harris has created a story around the letters between the PM and Venetia and it transpires that Asquith’s letters are authentic which makes this novel even more enthralling. With meticulous research and the potential national security breaches with the letters, Harris has excelled himself with this. This unique perspective on such an important part of history is original and commendable. Harris never disappoints. Long may it continue.

I knew little about this period of history - 1914-16 and the actions of the then Prime Minister - Herbert Asquith. Harris intertwines a riveting account of the beginnings of the First World War with a love story, between Asquith and Venetia Stanley, a young aristocrat who at 26 was less than half his age.

Initially I thought that the letters between Asquith and Venetia (delivered amazingly within a few hours by the ultra efficient postal service) were fictional and was astonished to find out that whereas hers are fiction (the real ones were destroyed) those from Asquith to her are entirely genuine. A young policemen (a fictional character) investigates what appears to be a leak of secret government documents and the personal and political become intertwined in a devastating way.

Harris always delivers on the mix of historial fact and fiction and this is no exception. A riveting read. Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a review copy.