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Margot at War

Love and Betrayal in Downing Street, 1912-1916

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Margot at War

By: Anne de Courcy
Narrated by: Patricia Gallimore
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About this listen

 Margot Asquith was perhaps the most daring and unconventional Prime Minister's wife in British history. Known for her wit, style and habit of speaking her mind, she transformed 10 Downing Street into a glittering social and intellectual salon. Yet her last five years at Number 10 were a period of intense emotional and political turmoil in her private and public life.

In 1912, when Anne de Courcy's book opens, rumblings of discontent and cries for social reform were encroaching on all sides - from suffragettes, striking workers and Irish nationalists. Against this background of a government beset with troubles, the Prime Minister fell desperately in love with his daughter's best friend, Venetia Stanley; to complicate matters, so did his Private Secretary. Margot's relationship with her husband was already bedevilled by her stepdaughter's jealous, almost incestuous adoration of her father. The outbreak of the First World War only heightened these swirling tensions within Downing Street.

Drawing on unpublished material from personal papers and diaries, Anne de Courcy vividly recreates this extraordinary time when the Prime Minister's residence was run like an English country house, with socialising taking precedence over politics, love letters written in the cabinet room and gossip and state secrets exchanged over the bridge table.

By 1916, when Asquith was forced out of office, everything had changed. For the country as a whole, for those in power, for a whole stratum of society, but especially for the Asquiths and their circle, it was the end of an era. Life inside Downing Street would never be the same again.

Read by Patricia Gallimore

(p) 2015 Isis Publishing Ltd©2014 Anne de Courcy 20th Century Europe Great Britain Modern Politicians Politics & Activism Marriage England

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Critic reviews

Anne de Courcy keeps this steaming, erotic merry-go-round whirling with admirable skill . . . This is a plot that Downton Abbey would die for!
Margot Asquith's sharp humour, modern style, intelligence and wealth fascinated men . . . Anne de Courcy has a firm grasp of politics, an acute eye for social detail and a keen perception of Margot's pains and pleasures. Her narrative is concise and compelling
De Courcy, author of the celebrated The Fishing Fleet: Husband Hunting in the Raj, indulges us with generous quotes from contemporary correspondence and detailed observation, describing life at a time of turbulent change through engaging anecdotes and descriptions (Elizabeth Freemantle)
A proper sex in high places scandal . . . Though Margot Asquith, nee Tennant, is its main character, her husband's scandalous obsession with young Venetia Stanley is inevitably centre stage
A superb evocation of an extraordinary time
Fascinating . . . Anne de Courcy is sympathetic to her subject. She's a journalist with a keen eye for detail and no-nonsense directness
Covers everything from Asquith's infidelity to politics and parties
It conveys Margot's milieu with a nice touch and takes time away from this enclosed self-regarding world to give us vivid sharp vignettes of the harder times being experienced by other classes. De Courcy records very well Margot's tortured jealousy, not only of her husband's dalliance with Venetia Stanley but of his daughter Violet's almost incestuous passion for her father (Ferdinand Mount)
A love triangle that nearly brought down the British government is at the heart of Margot at War by Anne de Courcy. Margot Asquith, whose husband was Prime Minister from 1908 to 1916, is the star of this riveting biography about war, love, marriage and secret goings-on at 10 Downing Street
Margot scandalised society. She refused chaperonage and said what she thought. Plain, with a broken nose from hunting, she dressed beautifully, and was immensely rich when she married Herbert Henry Asquith, subsidising his love of luxury . . . The research is impressive and the eventful historical context covered with a light touch. Enlightening, especially on Asquith's intractable opposition to the suffragettes
There are many instances in this engaging book, where, as well us giving us an informed account of events, the writer includes observations that are both logical and empathetic. This is a useful, entertaining and impressive publication
Margot was a rare bird indeed: stylish, idiosyncratic and never less than controvserial . . . Superbly blending the private and public, domestic dramas with international crises, Anne de Courcy proves that Mrs Asquith, flamboyant and opinionated, but also isolated and vulnerable, was peculiarly well suited to a period when her celebrity, if not her influence, had never been greater
A riveting, brilliantly researched picture of Downing Street during the crucial years in which the world changed irrevocably
All stars
Most relevant
A fascinating account of Britain in the lead up to WWI- so much was going on at the time. Suffragettes, Ireland home rule, massive societal change. V interesting to learn about through the diaries of people at the time- v accessible. I mainly loved the relationships at the heart of the book. Gripping and informative. Would highly recommend. Conflict of interest: author is my grandma. Wish she was reading out the book although enjoy gallimore’s funny accents.

De courcy’s best

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I found this to be an interesting book which draws upon the diaries of Margot Asquith, wife of H.H Asquith who was the Prime Minister immediately before and during world war one until Lloyd George following the shell scandal.

The book considers the impact politics and social events such as the suffragette movement had upon Margot, her social circle and her husband Asquith. The book highlights Margot’s gift of accurate description and her own intelligence in understanding the events.

Through Margot’s diaries we beginning to view Asquith as more than just an Edwardian politician and his role within WW1. Instead we begin to understand him as a person as seen through his wife Margot. We are also introduced to scandal at the heart of the institution, of the love affair between Asquith and his daughter’s best friend. An affair which is excused and hidden by Margot and her contemporaries to whom this was an open secret.

I had bought this text as I was hoping to further my knowledge of WW1. This book did not deliver and I do not feel I have any new information. However this did not detract from my overall enjoyment of the book and understanding Margot as a person, attitudes of the Edwardian upper class and the impact of infidelity.

Scandal and intrigue in Downing Street

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After listening to the biographies of Jennie Churchill and Bertie the Prince of Wales I decided to continue reading around the period with this wonderful book. It only covers a period of four years but it does refer back to the origins of Margot Asquith and other important actors of the period. Lending heavily from Margot's diaries and research the author paints a picture of the private lives of a group of people at the heart of power as one of the most momentous historical events was about to happen. You can really live the beginning of the First World War as if you were there with vivid pictures of the mobilisation, troop movements and the emergency measures being enforced. Between 1912 and the outbreak of the War there was constant social tension on the domestic Front with workers demanding better working conditions and pay and the Suffragette movement as well as the Home Rule for Ireland question which was threatening to bring about civil war. The War and its aftermath has tended to dwarf the pre-War period as if the Edwardian era was some kind of Indian summer but as this book reveals it was anything but. I felt the story of the Suffragettes and the story of industrial tension was somewhat on the superficial side but as the central focus is Margot and her opinions as to what was going on I can hardly fault the author on this. As to the personal story of Asquith's falling in love with his daughter's best friend (he was 60 and she was 25) I couldn't help feeling there is no fool like an old fool. For Margot it was deeply humiliating and I feel sad that for the people of these times that the lack of efficient contraception could end marital relations if the wife had had dangerous pregnancies and was advised to have no more children. I preferred the political drama to the personal drama but both are extremely well-written and the narration is excellent. This is the first female narrator who has managed to imitate male voices without making my skin crawl.

Splendid and compelling.

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I enjoyed the historical and factual aspect of the book although I found the narrator's accent and pronunciation of certain words poor, irritating and affected.

Comment

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I knew absolutely nothing about the characters and little about the politics of the period. I was riveted.

What a lot of ghastly people. I didn't really warm to Margot who seemed to care mostly about what other people thought. Surely if you are rich, attractive and aristocratic, the main benefit is not having to care. I never worked out why she married Asquith. It all seemed rather sad.

Asquith himself was a dreadful man. Lecherous with inappropriate women and girls, living off his wife's money, virtually an alcoholic, obsessed with his daughter's best friend about thirty years younger than him, he would ignore his colleagues in Cabinet meetings to read and reply to her love letters, or neglect his job go for long twilight coach rides with her - this was during the worst of the First World War. He was a man who had suffered the death of one wife and of two or more children, yet he said not meeting his girlfriend on one occasion when the war detained him was the greatest disappointment he had ever had. Why did nobody ever confront him?

There may be books which are more academic than this, but for a total beginner this was fascinating.

Astonishing, depressing, distasteful

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