Did a British prime minister ever have a more indiscreet wife? Or one more politically important? Margot Asquith gossiped and rowed with Westminster's great and powerful. They liked receiving her invitations to Downing Street, where Tories broke bread with Liberals. Her bookish husband Herbert Asquith profited politically from these soirees. A recent television drama portrays Mar-got Asquith as a flibbertigibbet, who was only interested in trivia. Her wartime diaries, published for the first time, reveal an astute woman who relishes political argument. The diaries start with the lead-up to war and end with the fall of the last Liberal government and David Lloyd George's extraordinary coup against the prime minister. Mrs Asquith is well placed to watch it all. Michael and Eleanor Brock have done a fine job as editors. Their footnotes signpost all the major events of the great war and provide the reader with some delicious quotes.
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