Review: Precipice by Robert Harris

The beautiful hardcover, signed, first edition of Precipice that I managed to pick up.

The first thing I have to say about this book is that it shocked me.

That surprise didn't come from Robert Harris' excellent storytelling, his vivid characters, or wonderful ability to pace a story. It came from the fact that the letters that create the skeleton of this story are real.

As always with Robert Harris, this is a beautifully researched and developed historical fiction. But, in my mind, his real skill is to take historical figures and flesh them out into fully fledged three dimensional characters.

The war time prime minister Herbert Asquith, is transformed before your eyes from a statesmen in a textbook to a romantic, intelligent, anxious, and unsure human being. He wanders between a prime minister at the peak of his power and influence and love struck puppy depending on the page you open.

But Asquith is not the star of the story.

The character of Venetia Stanley steals every scene that she is in. A real historical figure, she is the driving force if the novel. Strong willed , intelligent, funny. Harris has developed a character of the highest quality and done a service to help share the story of a truly incredible woman.

Venetia's humanity, and the predicament of her position forces you to sympathise with her. But her own strength, determination, and individuality mean that you cannot help but root for her.

You're often left with the question of why does she engage with this affair with a man old enough to be her grandfather?

Harris explains this as his intelligence intrigues her and the risk of the affair excites her. This builds throughout the novel as he shares more and more confidential information.

The only character not drawn from history is the policeman, Paul Deemer. An invention of Harris he allows us to enter the intimacy of the relationship between Venetia and Asquith as he reads their letters for the sake of national security. He almost acts as the author's voice as he spends days locked in a room an unknown third party in the affair.

This is a wonderfully structured novel that highlights the horrors of war, the humanity in statesman, the strength of women in an oppressive society, and the fine line between love and obsession.

My growing Robert Harris collection

Rating: 8/10

The worst crises in politics always occurred, in his experience, when two unrelated problems struck at once. The difficulties weren’t doubled, or even squared, but cubed.