Search results for ""author michael dobbs""

Michael Dobbs, author of the No. 1 bestseller that inspired the hit Netflix series House of Cards, returns to the subject that made him a household name - the human drama and scandal in Westminster. First Lady is a compelling and witty novel of power, seduction and revenge, perfect for fans of John Grisham and Philip Kerr.Virginia Edge: mid-thirties, attractive, self-sufficient, ambitious. This is the story of her transformation from dutiful political wife to masterful manipulator of the entire political process at Westminster. She is a woman who is driven by the failings of men and the greed of others to take over their system and undermine it, to repay them in kind. In this battle she has two great allies - the intuition and determination of a wronged wife, and the blind ineptitude of Westminster men.Praise for Michael Dobbs:'Brilliant... Full of magnificently dark political characters' Daily Mail'It's barbed and breakneck, often very funny and hugely entertaining' The Times 'Here is a political thriller writer with a marvellous inside track knowledge of government' Daily Express

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October 27, 1962, a day dubbed Black Saturday in the Kennedy White House. The Cuban missile crisis is at its height, and the world is drawing ever closer to nuclear apocalypse.As the opposing Cold War leaders, John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev, mobilize their forces to fight a nuclear war on land, sea and air, the world watches in terror. In Bobby Kennedy's words, 'There was a feeling that the noose was tightening on all of us, on Americans, on mankind, and that the bridges to escape were crumbling.'In One Minute to Midnight Michael Dobbs brings a fresh perspective to this crucial moment in twentieth-century history. Using a wealth of untapped archival material, he tells both the human and the political story of Black Saturday, taking the reader into the White House, the Kremlin and along the entire Cold War battlefront. Dobbs's thrilling narrative features a cast of characters - including Soviet veterans never before interviewed by a western writer - with unique stories to tell, witnesses to one of the greatest mobilizations of men and equipment since the Second World War.

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REVISED AND UPDATED WITH BRAND NEW MATERIALThe acclaimed political thriller that first introduced the unforgettable Francis Urquhart MP and launched Michael Dobbs’ No 1 bestselling career – now updated with brand new material. Michael Dobbs’ entertaining tale of skulduggery and intrigue within the Palace of Westminster has been a huge hit with the public. Its scheming hero, Chief Whip Francis Urquhart, who uses fair means and foul to become Prime Minister, is one of the best-known characters of the last decade – the politician we all love to hate. Acclaimed for its authenticity and insights into a secret world – the result of many years working behind the scenes for the Conservative Party – it became a highly popular, award-winning BBC TV series, with Francis Urquhart memorably portrayed by Ian Richardson, and was followed by two further sequels, ‘To Play the King’ and ‘The Final Cut’, which also became top-rating TV series.

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Selected by the Queen Consort for the Queen’s Reading Room The State Opening of Parliament. The most magnificent royal occasion of the year. The Queen, her Cabinet and all the most powerful people in the land are gathering in one room, the House of Lords. And none of them know they are about to endure the most terrifying day of their lives. Not all of them will survive. Sitting amongst the hostages are two young men, the sons of the British Prime Minister and the US President. It creates the cruellest challenge any leader could face. As the world watches on live television and holds its breath, President and Prime Minister are torn in two between their duty as statesmen, and their love as parents. Yet others have their agendas, too, not least of them Harry Jones, a man who is already undergoing the worst day of his life when he becomes swept up in the maelstrom. What can he do about this act of terrorism when the most powerful people are rendered helpless? He can ask one simple question - why?

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REVISED AND UPDATED EDITIONFrancis Urquhart’s eventful career as Prime Minister comes to a spectacular end in the final volume in the Francis Urquhart trilogy – now with brand new material. He schemed his way to power in House of Cards and had a memorable battle of wills with the new king in ‘To Play the King’. Now Francis Urquhart is about to take his place in the record books as the longest-serving Prime Minister this century. Yet it seems the public is tiring of him at last, and the movement to force him from power is growing. But Urquhart is not yet ready to be driven from office. If the public demand new blood, that is precisely what he will give them… Francis Urquhart goes out in a blaze of glory in this final volume in the irresistible story of the most memorable politician of the decade.

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From an acclaimed British author, a sharply focused, riveting account — told from inside the White House — of the crucial days, hours, and moments when the Watergate conspiracy consumed, and ultimately toppled, a president. In January 1973, Richard Nixon was inaugurated after winning re-election in a historic landslide. But by April his presidency had fallen apart as the Watergate scandal metastasised into what White House counsel John Dean called ‘a full-blown cancer’. King Richard is the intimate, utterly absorbing narrative of the tension-packed hundred days when the Watergate burglars and their handlers in the administration turned on one another, revealing their direct connection to the White House. Drawing on thousands of hours of newly released taped recordings, Michael Dobbs takes us into the very heart of the conspiracy, recreating these dramatic events in unprecedentedly vivid detail. He captures the growing paranoia of the principal players, and their desperate attempts to deflect blame, as the noose tightened around them and the daily pressures became increasingly unbearable. At the centre of this spellbinding drama is Nixon himself, a man whose strengths — particularly his determination to win at all costs — were also his fatal flaws. Structured like a classical tragedy with a uniquely American twist, this is an epic and deeply human story of ambition, power, and betrayal.

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In the Swiss Alps a teenage girl is thrown from a helicopter and her boyfriend is brutally abducted to Trieste, a city filled with undercurrents of past hatreds. Ruari, son of Irish media owner J J Breslin, is in desperate danger, at the mercy of ruthless kidnappers making impossible demands. His terrified mother contacts the only person she knows can help her son: Harry Jones, her former lover, who she walked out on many years ago. Now memories of their passionate affair, the guilt, hurt, anger and humiliation, come flooding back. Time is running out for Ruari and Harry, torn between his loyalties, is quickly drawn into a political game played for high stakes. Far higher than he realizes...

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The Second World War is coming to an end, and the three most powerful men on earth meet to thrash out the details of peace . . . Churchill's Triumph is an unputdownable thriller by Michael Dobbs, author of the No. 1 bestseller that inspired the hit Netflix series House of Cards. Perfect for fans of John Grisham and Philip Kerr. At the close of World War Two, in 1945, the most powerful men alive - Winston Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin - gather to survey the smoking ruins of Europe at the famous Yalta Conference. They must try and create a future where the atrocities of the last few years could never happen again. But as the negotiations begin that will eventually change the map of the world, the tension and pressure on political partnerships intensifies.In the fight against Hitler, Churchill's difficult relationship with the leaders of the Allied Powers, Roosevelt and Stalin, becomes a power struggle that will have the most dramatic global consequences . . . Praise for Michael Dobbs:'Explosive in every sense. His novels are famously predictive' Daily Mail 'Dobbs was clearly put on this earth to write thrillers of the most shamelessly page-turning quality' Daily Express'A thriller that is both nightmare vision and timely warning' Financial Times

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Here are some of the best of Churchill’s letters, many of a more personal nature, written to a wide range of people, including his schoolmaster, his American grandmother and former President Eisenhower. Letters for the Ages concentrates on the more intimate words of Winston Churchill, seeking to show the private man behind the public figure and shine fresh light on Churchill’s character and personality by capturing the drama, immediacy, storms, depressions, passions and challenges of his extraordinary career. These letters take us into his world and allow us to follow the changes in his motivations and beliefs as he navigates his 90 years. There are intimate letters to his parents, his teacher at Harrow, his wife Clementine, Prime Minister Asquith, Anthony Eden, President Roosevelt, Eamon De Valera and Charles De Gaulle. The letters are presented in chronological order, with a preface to each explaining the context, and they are accompanied throughout by facsimiles of said letters and photographs, offering the reader a sense of Churchill in his most private moments.

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