Imprint
- Abacus
- Little, Brown
Biography: general, Biography: historical, political & military, Prose: non-fiction
* A brilliantly written, insightful and entertaining life of the disgraced former leader of the Liberal Party - one of the most colourful characters of post-war British politics
'A revealing, insightful and gripping biography of one of the most extraordinary people ever to lead a British political party' Observer
The story of Jeremy Thorpe's rapid rise and spectacular fall from grace is one of the most remarkable in British politics. When he became leader of the Liberal Party in 1967 at the age of just thirty-seven, he seemed destined for truly great things. But as his star steadily rose so his nemesis drew ever nearer: a time-bomb in the form of Norman Scott, a homosexual wastrel and sometime male model with whom Jeremy had formed an ill-advised relationship in the early 1960s. Scott's incessant boasts about their 'affair' became increasingly embarrassing, and eventually led to a bizarre murder plot to shut him up for good. Jeremy was acquitted of involvement but his career was in ruins.
Michael Bloch's magisterial biography is not just a brilliant retelling of this amazing story; ten years in the making, it is also the definitive character study of one of the most fascinating figures in post-war British politics.
Praise for Jeremy Thorpe
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Michael Bloch's new biography of the former Liberal leader is never less than riveting . . . What makes this biography a triumph is the way Bloch weaves the Scott story into a proper political and personal account of Thorpe's life . . . With the hidden gay life, the blackmail, the fraud, the raffish and unsuitable friends, the family suicides, the payoffs, the lies, the secret letters, the bizarre murder plots, the celebrity world, the story of Jeremy Thorpe is one of the most extraordinary political tales of the twentieth century. And in Michael Bloch it has found a worthy chronicler - The Times
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Michael Bloch tells the tale of Jeremy Thorpe's extraordinary life with panache and precision . . . A riveting story, well told - Mail on Sunday
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This smoothly impressive biography . . . makes for a fascinating read . . . Bloch makes a better job of juggling the two sides of his subject's life - the glamorous progressive and the seedy show-off - than Thorpe did himself - Sunday Times
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[A] revealing, insightful and gripping biography of one of the most extraordinary people ever to lead a British political party - Observer
Michael Bloch
Michael Bloch read law at St John's College, Cambridge and was called to the bar by the Inner Temple. Appointed James Lees-Milne's literary executor in 1997, he edited the final five volumes of the complete diary as well as abridging it into three volumes, DIARIES, 1942-1954, DIARIES, 1971-1983 and DIARIES, 1984-1997. He also wrote the acclaimed biography, JAMES LEES-MILNE: THE LIFE. Find out more at www.jamesleesmilne.com
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