The Asquiths

[David181173]

I'm currently reading Colin Clifford's 'group biography' of the family of Asquith, Liberal PM of the UK from 1908 to 1916. Like many biographies it comes with a quote saying that it is as good as a novel. Often this claim seems exaggerated, but in this particular case there is some validity. I am finding it a very engaging read.

The late Victorian and Edwardian elite, of which the Asquith's where a part, is quite small. Everyone of influence, seems not only to know everyone else of influence but often to be related to them. Irrespective of whether one like's such privilege, it does mean that when reading a book such as this you feel as though you a rubbing shoulders with many interesting and powerful people.

This time last year I was reading William Dalrymple's "White Mughals". It too was highly endorsed and compared with a novel, but I found it hard work. Indeed, I still haven't finished it yet. To be fair, this is probably just a matter of taste. Having always been fascinated by the Victorian/Edwardian political world a book like "The Asquiths" starts from a position of advantage.

 

[David181173]

The last third or so of this book is dominated by the First World War. This is hardly surprising since Herbert Asquith was Prime Minister for half of it, and his three eldest sons were all combatants. I'll not say anything about their fate so as not to spoil things for anyone who likes the outcome of their non-fiction to be as unknown as their fiction.

Never having had a taste for military history with all its talk of offensives, "flanks" and the like, I found the battle descriptions rather heavy going. Not that one would expect this sort of thing to be light. Personally I just didn't need all the detail, feeling much more at home with the political twists and turns back home.

Once the war is over the book is very quickly wrapped up. This despite the fact that Asquith Senior lived for almost another decade, his wife Margot until 1945 and some of their children until the 1950s and 1960s.