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10 Vintage Non-Fiction Recommendations

Politics On the Edge

The searing inside story of our broken politics from the former Cabinet minister and co-host of The Rest Is Politics. 
 ‘The most exceptional political memoir I’ve ever read’ 
 ALAN JOHNSON 
 ‘An instant classic’MARINA HYDE 
 ‘At last a politician who can write’SEBASTIAN FAULKS 
 
 Over the course of a decade, Rory Stewart went from being a political outsider to standing for prime minister – before being sacked from a Conservative Party that he had come to barely recognise. 
 
 Uncompromising, honest and darkly humorous, this is his story of the challenges, absurdities and realities of political life. Instantly praised as a new classic, it is an astonishing portrait of our turbulent times. 
 
 ‘Genuinely eye-opening…always riveting, often horrifying’ 
 iNEWS 
 
 ‘Beautifully written’ 
 GUARDIAN 
 
 ‘Hugely entertaining’ 
 EVENING STANDARD 
 
 BRITISH BOOK AWARDS NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024 
 
 * A BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR THE FT, GUARDIAN, SUNDAY TIMES, TELEGRAPH, TIMES, OBSERVER, i NEWSPAPER, NEW STATESMAN, PROSPECT, CHURCH TIMES AND SCOTSMAN * 
 Politics on the Edge was a #1 Sunday Times bestseller from 09.09.23–16.09.23, 09.12.23–16.12.23, 30.12.23–06.01.24 and 11.06.24—25.06.24.

There’s no denying that Rory Stewart stands almost alone among British politicians: he’s one of a handful who can actually turn a phrase. That talent is put to good use here — no other account of how Cameron Toryism curdled into May and Johnson is likely to be as evocative or amusing as this one

The Times, *The Times Political Book of the Year*

If you want to better understand the catastrophe that has been our government since 2010, or you just want to bask in Stewart’s beautifully formulated prose, read this book

A brilliant insider’s account of the Cameron-May-Johnson years

It is the sheer sharpness, originality and truth-telling grace of Stewart’s prose, along with the vital importance of his subject, that makes his new book a truly exceptional political autobiography, both a pleasure to read, and a vital wake-up call

Full of sharp observations and often funny… a portrait of a country where power is wielded by empty careerists, working in a broken system

Beautifully written... You glimpse how transformative government could be

A fascinating account of power, corruption and lies

Stewart writes beautifully and is brilliant at describing both the theatre and insanity of life in politics

[Stewart’s] memoir of his time in politics is valuable as a slice of entertainment, as an enjoyably catty takedown of his former colleagues, and as perhaps the most helpful recent account of the failings of the British state… a valuable contribution to the historical record

Sunday Times, *Political Book of the Year*

The moral and technical seriousness of this book should not be ignored: in his time in parliamentary politics, Stewart discovered a lot that needs mending—and he has plenty of ideas for doing so

Few books on politics are worth reading, but this is riveting. Beautifully written, with a highly personal, deeply felt slant, it really does make one want to turn over the page

The sharpness of the character sketches and the restless nature of the author, buy turns self-loving and self-loathing, make it burst with life

The most exceptional political memoir I’ve ever read

Stewart… is a writer and his first loyalty is to his readers. Most of them will share his despair at the small-time mediocrities who dominate modern politics. Almost all will appreciate the book’s viciousness, eccentricity, wit and intelligence

Rarely before has the life of a government minister been described in such granular detail or with such literary flair... This book is a vital work of documentation: Orwell down the coal mine, Swift on religious excess. We should be grateful it was written and that Stewart never stopped being interesting.'

The most compelling account I have read in recent years of the ways in which the British political system makes good government nigh-on impossible

A superbly readable book. Former Tory minister Rory Stewart exposes the ‘shameful state’ of recent Conservative rule in this brilliant and blisteringly frank account of dysfunctional government

Few political memoirs last for long. Rory Stewart’s Politics on the Edge may be an exception… Stewart’s memoir is a brilliant portrait of the Cameron-May-Johnson era. It is likely to become a classic on a par with Clark’s diaries

One of the best books on politics our era will see… a book of astonishing literary quality

Anyone with the slightest interest in politics should get a copy of Rory Stewart's political memoir... In terms of the quality of writing, there has been nothing to approach it since the diaries of Alan Clark

A significant book – candid, beautifully observed, written by someone with a questioning intelligence and a burning desire to make the world a better place

Genuinely eye-opening stuff, always riveting, often horrifying… this is one of the most captivating political books in recent memory

One of the most excoriating political memoirs of modern times... Hugely entertaining, Politics on the Edge, is hard to dismiss

An eye-opening (and highly enjoyable) read for anyone interested in understanding the realities of political power in the age of populism

Brilliantly written, completely gripping, and darkly funny - this is one of the most devastating insider accounts of Westminster I have ever read. An instant classic of political memoir.

Every page has something beautifully and memorably expressed and something interesting I haven't come across before

An illuminating and excoriating insight into politics and power. Candid, angry, funny, and self-revelatory

An excoriating picture of a shamefully dysfunctional political culture - idle, entitled, ignorant and frivolous. I hope it will make its readers angry enough to work harder for something more honest and effective

An unsparing and brilliant portrait... The lying, incompetence, and treachery he depicts are all so blatant that the book should be assigned to bright young things to rid them of any remaining illusions before they put their name on a ballot

So well and often so wittily written, and so revealing about British politics from top to bottom, that it is destined to become a classic of the genre

At last a politician who can write. In a decade at Westminster, Rory Stewart worked alongside - indeed for - most of the con-artists and dimwits of recent governments. The problem is not just one of personal calibre, however. The book suggests it is the party political system itself that tends to stifle innovation and practical change. Opinionated, lucid and thought-provoking

Enthralling, appalling and occasionally hilarious

Any combination of insight, humanity, self-awareness and style in a political memoir is valuable. To achieve them all, as Rory Stewart has done, is exceptional

Rafael Behr, author of POLITICS: A SURVIVOR'S GUIDE

Rory Stewart's book is essential reading for our times. Stewart manages to whisk us into the antechambers of power, and provide a "behind the scenes" look at politics, in the manner that the best science and medicine books reveal insider's views of those realms. Like his previous books, this one is also the chronicle of a journey - and it's unputdownable

A truly absorbing and fascinating book

This fine, perceptive book shows just how much British politics needs someone like Rory Stewart: incisive, thoughtful, far more concerned with the business of good government than with the small-time idiocies of party politics. And how typical that he should have been driven out of government, and out of politics altogether

If you want to know what it's like-really like-to be a politician, read Rory Stewart's intense, funny, savage and profound account

Michael Ignatieff, author of FIRE AND ASHES: SUCCESS AND FAILURE IN POLITICS

How Not to be a Politician is one of the most enjoyable and revelatory political memoirs to appear in ages - beautifully written, self-mocking but insistently principled. Stewart manages to make a life in professional politics seem laughable, entirely indefensible, and yet ennobling. This is a book that will be read for decades, as a document of its time and as timeless literature

Very good… the book is often entertaining. Stewart vividly records his encounters with the key figures of his time…it’s enjoyable to read fresh evidence of it

In which clever, reasonable officer-class virtue witnesses close up a historic outbreak of unreason and irresponsibility - and takes the subtlest of revenges. By producing the best-written account there will ever be of what has happened to the Conservative Party since 2010, Rory Stewart ensures that his version of events will endure when Boris Johnson is only the mouldering memory of a fright-wig

Stewart writes with humour, elegance, sophistication, and style...he is unfailingly honest

Engaged but objective, candid but not gossipy, and braced with strong conviction while accepting limitation. Rory Stewart has written a book that breathes life back into the cliché 'essential reading

A no-holds-barred account of what's gone wrong with modern politics, from the outspoken former Conservative minister

A far more compelling political memoir than many of those written by others. Anyone thinking about a career in politics should read this first

Extremely well written and a genuine pleasure to read… For anyone with an interest in politics it is well worth looking into

Stewart is eloquent and indignant about duplicitousness and incompetence in modern politics

Compelling… Stewart's book is so well and often so wittily written, and so revealing about British politics from top to bottom, that it is destined to become a classic of the genre

If you’re looking for a curtain lifter on the arcane and at time obnoxious world of Westminster…this more than fits the bill

Both a riveting and painful read, which, frankly, exposes the glaring inadequacies of the dysfunctional way in which Britain is governed

Eminently readable, often funny…but also deeply depressing – [Politics on the Edge] is an excoriating denunciation of the way our country is run

There have been very few political memoirs that have the forensic honesty about politics than Politics on the Edge… A terrific read: readable and funny

A serious study of government as well as a fly-on-the-wall account of ministerial life, full of hair-raising anecdotes

[Stewart’s] elegant book is a discouraging sketch of the current state of British politics

Of all the political memoirs on the shelves – of which there are many – Politics on the Edge is one of the most engaging

A satisfying read for any fan of The Rest Is Politics in your life

Over the course of a decade from 2010, Rory Stewart went from being a political outsider to standing for prime minister &ndash; before being sacked from a Conservative Party that he had come to barely recognise. 
 
Tackling ministerial briefs on flood response and prison violence, engaging with conflict and poverty abroad as a foreign minister, and Brexit as a Cabinet minister, Stewart learned first-hand how profoundly hollow and inadequate our democracy and government had become. Cronyism, ignorance and sheer incompetence ran rampant. Around him, individual politicians laid the foundations for the political and economic chaos of today. Stewart emerged battered but with a profound affection for his constituency of Penrith and the Border, and a deep direct insight into the era of populism and global conflict. 
 
Politics On the Edge invites us into the mind of one of the most interesting actors on the British political stage. Uncompromising, candid and darkly humorous, this is his story of the challenges, absurdities and realities of political life. Instantly praised as a new classic, it is an astonishing portrait of our turbulent times.

The Marches

Border walks with my father

THE NO. 1 BEST-SELLING AUTHOR OF POLITICS ON THE EDGE 
 
Rory Stewart explores his love for the UK in this account of history, memory and landscape as he traverses the the borderlands between England and Scotland. 
 
&lsquo;This beautifully written book is a haunting reflection of identity and our relationships with the people and places we love&rsquo; Daily Mail 
 
His father Brian taught Rory Stewart how to walk, and walked with him on journeys from Iran to Malaysia. Now they have chosen to do their final walk together along &lsquo;the Marches&rsquo; - the frontier that divides their two countries, Scotland and England. 
 
On their six-hundred-mile, thirty-day journey - with Rory on foot, and his father &lsquo;ambushing&rsquo; him by car &ndash; the pair relive Scottish dances, reflect on Burmese honey-bears, and on the loss of human presence in the British landscape. 
Travelling across mountain ridges and through housing estates they uncover a forgotten country crushed between England and Scotland: the Middleland. They discover unsettling modern lives, lodged in an ancient place, as their odyssey develops into a history of the British nationhood, a chronicle of contemporary Britain and an exuberant encounter between a father and a son. 
 
And as the journey deepens, and the end approaches, Brian and Rory fight to match, step by step, modern voices, nationalisms and contemporary settlements to the natural beauty of the Marches, and a fierce absorption in tradition in their own unconventional lives. 
 
&lsquo;Suggests an open-mindedness in Stewart, a tolerance and flexibility that could make him an exceptional politician while it also continues to define him as a writer&rsquo; New York Review of Books 
 
&lsquo;Travel writing at its best&rsquo; Guardian 
 
Please note: The book cover received may differ from the cover displayed here.

THE NO. 1 BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF POLITICS ON THE EDGE 
 
Rory Stewart and his father are undertaking their final walk together along the Marches – the frontier that divides Scotland and England. 
 
‘Travel writing at its best’ OBSERVER 
‘Profoundly moving’ SPECTATOR 
 
On their six-hundred-mile, thirty-day journey, the pair relive Scottish dances, reflect on Burmese honey-bears, and on the loss of human presence in the British landscape. Their odyssey develops into a history of nationhood, an anatomy of the landscape, a chronicle of contemporary Britain and an exuberant encounter between a father and a son. 
 
‘A bewitching book’ SUNDAY TIMES 
 
‘An unforgettable tale’ NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC 
 
‘Deeply moving, honest and loving’ COUNTRY LIFE 
 
GUARDIAN READERS’ BOOK OF THE YEAR 
OBSERVER BOOK OF THE YEAR 
WINNER OF THE HUNTER DAVIES LAKELAND PRIZE 
 
Please note: The book cover received may differ from the cover displayed here.

Rory Stewart

Rory Stewart has written a remarkable book about community and countryside, his community, his countryside. It is both telling and tender. He is treading in the footsteps of Thomas Hardy and Edward Thomas in his understanding of our need to belong and to contribute. A rare and life-affirming story of searching and finding our place to be and to cherish.

Urgent and inspiring, Middleland is at once a hymn to the beauty of the Cumbrian landscape, a testament to the spirit of its people, and a powerful argument for political reform. Deeply rooted in history and the land, personal, wise and often funny, this is a heartfelt celebration of local people and place, and an invitation to imagine a different kind of politics.

Dispatches from the Borders

From the author of the Sunday Times no. 1 bestseller Politics on the Edge and co-host of The Rest is Politics 
 
Rory Stewart spent nearly a decade as MP for Britain’s most rural constituency, Penrith and the Border. As he came to know and love this part of Cumbria, he found inspiration in the beauty of its landscape, its rugged history as a frontierland, and in the spirit of its people. 
 
Drawing on pieces originally written for a local newspaper, Middleland is an urgent and inspiring portrait of rural Britain today – a place caught in tensions between farming and the natural world, between the need to preserve and to grow, between local and national politics – as well as a timeless evocation of the history, people and landscape of Cumbria. 
 
These are stories of beauty and ingenuity, which also show us what a better politics might look like.

Rory Stewart

Praise for Middleland

Rory Stewart has written a remarkable book about community and countryside, his community, his countryside. It is both telling and tender. He is treading in the footsteps of Thomas Hardy and Edward Thomas in his und ...

Urgent and inspiring, Middleland is at once a hymn to the beauty of the Cumbrian landscape, a testament to the spirit of its people, and a powerful argument for political reform. Deeply rooted in history and ...

Books by Rory Stewart

Articles featuring Rory Stewart

The Penguin books that shaped our political understanding

Books and resources to help you navigate the 2024 UK general election

10 Vintage Non-Fiction Recommendations

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