Robert Harris – Precipice (fiction)

In the first of a huge double bill at Rother College we firstly welcome Robert Harris to talk about Precipice, the latest novel in which he seamlessly weaves fact and fiction in a way that no writer does better. The set up?

It’s Summer 1914 and the world is on the brink of catastrophe. 

In London, 26-year-old Venetia Stanley – aristocratic, clever, bored, reckless – is having a love affair with the Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith, a man more than twice her age. He writes to her obsessively, sharing the most sensitive matters of state. 

As Asquith reluctantly leads the country into war with Germany, a young intelligence officer is assigned to investigate a leak of top secret documents – and suddenly what was a sexual intrigue becomes a matter of national security that will alter the course of political history. 

In conversation with Manveen Rana

This event is generously sponsored by the Stephen Bartlett Trust