Product Description

Drawing on a wide range of historical examples, Graham Stewart explores the intriguing question of whether friendship can survive the pressures of public life. He examines in detail three relationships from across centuries and nations to illustrate how people in power cope with the pleasures and pitfalls of friendship in public life. His first example, Courtiers, tells the story of Queen Anne and Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, and shows how the introduction of a new 'favourite' can ensure a powerfully jealous reaction from the long standing friend who is displaced. His second example, Revolutionaries, relates the tale of one of the United States' greatest Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin, and his relationship with his longest serving political partner, Joseph Galloway. Here were two ambitious men whose friendship was broken in bitterness by divided loyalties during the American War of Independence. The third example, Liberals, brings us back to Britain and the friendship between Herbert Henry Asquith and his best friend Richard Burdon Haldane. Their relationship helped ensure that one became Prime Minister and the other Lord Chancellor, but as Stewart sums up 'with success came harsh political necessities, and only one of them was marked out to pay the sacrifice.' Indeed it is Stewart's view that 'great leaders usually find that when they reach the summit they are alone.' We see how single-mindedness, indeed selfishness, appears a necessary quality in the scramble for preferment and how friendship can so quickly turn into rivalry. Incisive and thought-provoking, FRIENDSHIP & BETRAYAL is a fascinating examination of an age old dilemma that continues to animate public life today.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #640141 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 400 pages

Jane Ridley, THE SPECTATOR
'an enthralling book - and one that points to a new way forward for political biography.'

Review
'this enjoyable book..... these episodes narrated as they are with impressive knowledge of their periods.' (JWM Thompson LITERARY REVIEW )

'an enthralling book - and one that points to a new way forward for political biography.' (Jane Ridley THE SPECTATOR )

'ambitious trawl through history.... there is much that is poignant in this book.' (Chris Bryant THE INDEPENDENT )

'One of the many merits of his book is that he writes with tremendous zest and clarity' (Miranda Seymour THE GUARDIAN )

"The book that MPs have been reading this summer is Graham Stewart's Friendship and Betrayal, a historical look at political ambition and the limits of loyalty. The book highlights political friendships through the ages and makes clear that it was not only Stalin who shafted his friends. Shared experiences and backgrounds, common assumptions and the pleasure derived from another's company, all end up taking second place to climbing the greasy pole." (Alice Thomson THE DAILY TELEGRAPH )

'brilliantly researched, and for the most part, well told.' (THE IRISH EXAMINER )

JWM Thompson, LITERARY REVIEW
'this enjoyable book..... these episodes narrated as they are with impressive knowledge of their periods.'

Customer Reviews

Enjoyable and well-written - and rather topical
Graham Stewart writes very well, as the many readers of his Times column know. It was a treat to have more than 1000 words of his to read at one time, and this well researched book, packed with illuminating detail was a pleasure to read. With Blair having finally handed over to Brown, I could not help but reflect on their relationship in the light of Stewart's thesis - so much more helpful than the acres of useless speculation in the press. Stewart is an erudite and entertaining writer. The separate stories he uses to illustrate his thesis were unfamiliar to me, and so I found the book educative, interesting and enjoyable. A treat.

A compulsive, brilliant, glorious read - history at its very best
This book is a brilliant piece of work - everything that history should be. It educates. It delights. It is witty, thought-provoking, rich and stylish. It sparks alive the periods and characters into whose midst Stewart effortlessly draws you. It is absolutely compulsive reading. Anyone who has read Stewart's other works will not be disappointed; anyone who has not read Stewart's other works should do so. A warning - do not, as I did, start reading this book at bedtime - you'll still be gripped and engrossed at 4am!

intriguing historical insights
Friendship and Betrayal enthralls me so that when reading, I can hardly put it down! There is a quaint jocular saying - Have you heard the news? Queen Anne is dead! Stewart makes her and her times, very much alive and vivid.
"Revolutionaries" - a story which is little known of the American War of Independence, is so illuminating with every page so interesting.
Part three, "Liberals" excels and is fascinating and spell binding to the end.

S. Newton