- Title:
- Head of State
- By:
- Andrew Marr
- Pages:
- 384
- Rating:
- 2
The debut novel by Britain’s most celebrated pundit, a gleefully twisted take on 10 Downing Street
It’s September 2017, and the United Kingdom is on the verge of a crucial referendum that will determine, once and for all, if the country remains a member of the European Union or goes its own way. But, unsuspected by the electorate, and unknown to all but a handful of members of the Prime Minister’s innermost circle, there is a shocking secret at the very heart of government that could change everything in an instant. A group of ruthlessly determined individuals will stop at nothing—including murder—to prevent that from happening.
Andrew Marr’s first novel is a darkly comic tale of deception and skullduggery at Downing Street and Whitehall. Making full use of his unrivalled inside knowledge of the British political scene, Marr has created a sparkling entertainment, a wholly original depiction of Westminster and its denizens, and a fascinating, irreverent glimpse behind the parliamentary curtain.
Though fascinating in political terms, I found this had a lot of what I’d already expected: vastly fowl-mouthed newspaper editors, stereotypical old Etonians, scathing contempt for the blandness of today’s politics and of course there’s an adopted child who comes back to haunt things at the end.
A rather good idea, very heavily steeped in politics and insider knowledge of course, but in all essentials this has been handled more readably, if not quite as Britishly in other works.