A most enjoyable read! I love historical fiction and the author has written a novel that’s impossible to put down; the story unfolds of the relationship between Venetia Stanley and the then Prime Minister Asquith, who is twice her age. Asquith is besotted with this young independent and impetuous lady, writing to her several letters daily, totalling over 500 during their two year acquaintance. However, even though these are in part love letters they also include top secret details and telegrams of discussions and events relating to the Government’s handling in the early stages of WW1. Their communications are intercepted by a young enthusiastic policeman seconded to a secret Government Department, which amount to potential espionage. Robert Harris is now firmly in place on my ‘must read’ list. My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this e-ARC.

First Robert Harris book I’d read and it won’t be the last! - The story takes the reader behind the scenes of high society and government as war breaks out and then continues the journey through the war. There’s romance, suspense and drama throughout. It’s such a great story I didn’t want to get to the end! - My next read is going to be another Robert Harris … probably Enigma.

What bliss to be alive and in possession of a new Robert Harris novel, even better an advance proof copy. I like counterfactual novels (Fatherland) and ones which bear a resemblance to real events (Conclave) but there’s an extra frisson in reading a story that has a solid framework of real people and real events, where it’s only the unrecorded thoughts and conversations that the novelist has had to invent. Wolf Hall is perhaps the ne plus ultra; Harris’s An Officer and a Spy runs it close. This may be a novel but it’s the true parts that are most astonishing, in particular the tens of letters from Prime Minister H. H. Asquith to his young mistress Venetia Stanley. They show how much he leant on her, sharing the burden of office and setting things straight in his mind by explaining them to her. Asquith is portrayed sympathetically, as a rational thinker aware of his own shortcomings, but also as a lovesick fool. I rather warmed to Venetia; in a different time she might have been working for him in an official capacity. His security discipline was atrocious; thank goodness she took confidentiality seriously. Whatever the research and setting of historical fiction, it’s got to feel right and this definitely does – I’ve spent the last couple of days happily ensconced in 1914/5 in the company of the great and the good, really feeling the tension as war loomed and then as Churchill pushed the Dardanelles campaign. I’m on a bit of a First World War jag at the moment and this is a perfect complement to Barbara Tuchman’s The Guns of August and Christopher Clark’s The Sleepwalkers, each no less riveting for being dense non-fiction. Harris at his best is hard to beat and with Precipice he is at his very best. Enjoy. Thanks to Hutchinson Heinemann for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley.

Robert Harris never fails! He always increases my thirst for knowledge and this novel is no exception! A page turner from the start. Lord Asquith, the Prime Minister and aristocrat Venetia Stanley are having an affair. The First World War is looming and the atmosphere in the country is electric! Correspondence between the lovers is constant and information, often top secret, is passed between the two. When a telegram is tossed nonchalantly from the Prime Minister’s car window and discovered by a passer by Special Branch become involved and the country’s security could be at risk! Asquith is oblivious and Venetia is beginning to find life a little claustrophobic plus she wishes to do her bit for the war effort. The age gap is beginning to show. The fact that this is a true story plus Robert Harris’s attention to detail and his ability to bring these characters to life made the story all the more intriguing. I loved it!

This is an excellent novel, set in 1914, just before and during the early months of the First World War. I studied this in detail for my history degree and the diplomacy and political squabbles are so well written and understandable. They give the reader a great understanding of what was going on at the time. And the letters beween Asquith and Venetia running through the book make for a great read. They are amazing, I had never heard of them before. A very well written book (as expected from Robert Harris) with an interesting and engagng plot. The notes at the end were insightful and interesting too. With thanks for the e-ARC to read and review.