Precipice, Harris - B

             This novel is set in the second half of 1914. It is based on the love letters written by British PM Herbert Asquith to his much younger mistress, Venetia Stanley. While Asquith focuses on the Irish problem and pines for Venetia, war on the continent comes out of nowhere and becomes unstoppable overnight. Asquith's second wife had been told to foreswear intimacy after a miscarriage, so the PM happily pursues younger women, and falls particularly hard for Venetia. As matters spiral out of control on the continent and a year later in the Dardanelles, the PM becomes embarrassingly dependent on her and writes to her three times a day. Feeling overwhelmed, Venetia pulls away, volunteers to become a nurse, goes to France, and accepts an engagement proposal from an unsuitable (and homosexual) admirer, at which point Asquith wishes her well. The absolutely astounding thing about this novel is that a man in his sixties and prime minister of a vast empire acted like a love struck teenager and shared innumerable matters of state and strategy in violation of common sense and the law. The descriptions of those in the cabinet, particularly Winston, Kitchener, and Lloyd George are fun to read.