Francis Urquhart's eventful career as Prime Minister comes to a spectacular end in the final volume in the Francis Urquhart trilogy - now reissued in audio.
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.
Newly elected Prime Minister Francis Urquhart takes on the new King, in the controversial No 1 bestselling second volume in the Francis Urquhart trilogy - now reissued in audio.
After scheming his way to power in 'House of Cards', Francis Urquhart made a triumphant return in 'To Play the King' - a Sunday Times No 1 bestseller that became a BBC TV series, with Ian Richardson resuming his award-winning role as Francis Urquhart and a hugely successful Netflix series.
Its highly controversial and uncannily topical storyline - in which the role of the monarchy in modern Britain comes under scrutiny as Prime Minister Francis Urquhart threatens to expose Royal secrets when his plans are blocked by the idealistic new King - coincided with a huge increase in public interest in the future of the Royal Family following a series of Royal scandals.
The acclaimed political thriller that first introduced the unforgettable Francis Urquhart MP and launched Michael Dobbs' No 1 bestselling career.
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.
A missile tears a passenger plane from the skies over London. Everyone on board is killed, including thirty-seven special children. As terror turns to international chaos, can the government survive...?
Who would have killed them? And why? When Harry Jones starts searching for answers, he stumbles into the middle of a plot that stretches from Russia to the Islamic revolution in Egypt, from the shores of the Caspian Sea to an ancient church in rural Wiltshire. Yet every lead he pursues finds its way back to the secret corners of Brussels and a British woman named Patricia Vaine.
She and Harry are doomed to fight their battle to the death. Their own lives, and the future of an entire continent, are at stake in what develops into the greatest political power game since the end of the Second World War. For this is a plot not just to take over one country but the whole of Europe. And in this deadly game, the victors will claim total victory - unless Harry Jones can stop them...
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...
When Harry Jones discovers that former friend Zac Kravitz's life is in danger, a debt of honour sends him on a perilous rescue mission to Ta'argistan, a mountainous and landlocked former Soviet republic bordering Russia, China and Afghanistan. Muscling his way onto a delegation of MPs who happen to be paying the state a visit, Harry finds an unlikely ally in the stubbornly independent Martha and together they devise a plan to break Zac out of the ancient high-walled prison in the capital, Ashkek. But when, in the depths of winter, the attempt backfires and Harry finds himself taking Zac's place, he realises that he has been lured, unawares, into a terrifying web of international conspiracy.
Newly elected Prime Minister Francis Urquhart takes on the new King, in the controversial No 1 bestselling second volume in the Francis Urquhart trilogy - now reissued in a new cover.After scheming his way to power in 'House of Cards', Francis Urquhart made a triumphant return in 'To Play the King' - a Sunday Times No 1 bestseller that became a hugely successful BBC TV series, with Ian Richardson resuming his award-winning role as Francis Urquhart.Its highly controversial and uncannily topical storyline - in which the role of the monarchy in modern Britain comes under scrutiny as Prime Minister Francis Urquhart threatens to expose Royal secrets when his plans are blocked by the idealistic new King - coincided with a huge increase in public interest in the future of the Royal Family following a series of Royal scandals.
The acclaimed political thriller that first introduced the unforgettable Francis Urquhart MP and launched Michael Dobbs' No 1 bestselling career - now reissued in a new cover.
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.
Francis Urquhart's eventful career as Prime Minister comes to a spectacular end in the final volume in the Francis Urquhart trilogy - now reissued in a new cover.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.
Michael Dobbs' popular new character Tom Goodfellowe, the crumpled backbench MP, makes his debut and takes on the might of the press in this highly acclaimed novel of power and corruption - now reissued in a new cover style.INTO AN AGE CRYING OUT FOR NEW LEADERS STUMBLES THE MOST UNLIKELY POLITICAL HERO OF ALL.Tom Goodfellowe is not like other MPs. His private life is a mess, his love life is abysmal, he has an overdraft and a drink-driving conviction. He also has a talent for getting into trouble.He lives in London's Chinatown, and when he is asked to help a young Chinese girl, he has no idea he's heading into conflict with the Prime Minister, the police and the press - particularly Freddy Corsa, a newspaper proprietor who sets out to ruin Goodfellowe financially, politically and sexually.Goodfellowe is one man against the system, and he is about to be destroyed in tomorrow's newspaper.
From the author of the best-selling One Minute to Midnight, a riveting account of the pivotal six-month period spanning the end of World War II, the dawn of the nuclear age, and the beginning of the Cold War. When Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill met in Yalta in February 1945, Hitler's armies were on the run and victory was imminent. The Big Three wanted to draft a blueprint for a lasting peace but instead set the stage for a forty-four-year division of Europe into Soviet and western spheres of influence. After fighting side by side for nearly four years, their political alliance was rapidly fracturing. By the time the leaders met again in Potsdam in July 1945, Russians and Americans were squabbling over the future of Germany and Churchill was warning about an iron curtain being drawn down over the Continent. These six months witnessed some of the most dramatic moments of the twentieth century: the cataclysmic battle for Berlin, the death of Franklin Roosevelt, the discovery of the Nazi concentration camps, Churchill's electoral defeat, and the dropping of atomic bombs on Japan. While their armies linked up in the heart of Europe, the political leaders maneuvered for leverage: Stalin using his nation's wartime sacrifices to claim spoils, Churchill doing his best to halt Britain's waning influence, FDR trying to charm Stalin, Truman determined to stand up to an increasingly assertive Soviet superpower. Six Months in 1945 brilliantly captures this momentous historical turning point, chronicling the geopolitical twists behind the descent of the iron curtain, while illuminating the aims and personalities of larger-than-life political giants. It is a vividly rendered story of individual and national interests in fierce competition at a seminal moment in history.
In October 1962, at the height of the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union appeared to be sliding inexorably toward a nuclear conflict over the placement of missiles in Cuba. Veteran Washington Post reporter Michael Dobbs has pored over previously untapped American, Soviet, and Cuban sources to produce the most authoritative book yet on the Cuban missile crisis. In his hour-by-hour chronicle of those near-fatal days, Dobbs reveals some startling new incidents that illustrate how close we came to Armageddon.
Here, for the first time, are gripping accounts of Khrushchev's plan to destroy the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo; the accidental overflight of the Soviet Union by an American spy plane; the movement of Soviet nuclear warheads around Cuba during the tensest days of the crisis; the activities of CIA agents inside Cuba; and the crash landing of an American F-106 jet with a live nuclear weapon on board.
Dobbs takes us inside the White House and the Kremlin as Kennedy and Khrushchev-rational, intelligent men separated by an ocean of ideological suspicion-agonize over the possibility of war. He shows how these two leaders recognized the terrifying realities of the nuclear age while Castro-never swayed by conventional political considerations-demonstrated the messianic ambition of a man selected by history for a unique mission. As the story unfolds, Dobbs brings us onto the decks of American ships patrolling Cuba; inside sweltering Soviet submarines and missile units as they ready their warheads; and onto the streets of Miami, where anti-Castro exiles plot the dictator's overthrow.
Based on exhaustive new research and told in breathtaking prose, here is a riveting account of history's most dangerous hours, full of lessons for our time.
