The Senecans - Hardcover
A Best Book of 2016 - Evening Standard
'Margaret Thatcher and Emperor Nero, two courts across two thousand years. A brilliant, haunting work from a modern master of memoir' Mary Beard
'[An] artful blend of fact and fiction... poetically written, supremely stylish' Emily Gowers, Guardian
A year after the death of Margaret Thatcher, a young woman arrives to ask Peter Stothard, former Editor of The Times, some sharp questions about his memories of the Thatcher era. During her interview the offices from where he long observed British politics are being flattened by wrecking balls. Forgotten stories return. From the destruction of a collapsing newspaper plant emerge portraits of the Senecans, a Hollywood screen-writer who wrote her speeches, a socialite former socialist who comforted her with flattery, a comic political columnist whom she admired but rarely read and a multi-millionaire film-producer whom she consulted but never acknowledged.
'Margaret Thatcher and Emperor Nero, two courts across two thousand years. A brilliant, haunting work from a modern master of memoir' Mary Beard
'[An] artful blend of fact and fiction... poetically written, supremely stylish' Emily Gowers, Guardian
A year after the death of Margaret Thatcher, a young woman arrives to ask Peter Stothard, former Editor of The Times, some sharp questions about his memories of the Thatcher era. During her interview the offices from where he long observed British politics are being flattened by wrecking balls. Forgotten stories return. From the destruction of a collapsing newspaper plant emerge portraits of the Senecans, a Hollywood screen-writer who wrote her speeches, a socialite former socialist who comforted her with flattery, a comic political columnist whom she admired but rarely read and a multi-millionaire film-producer whom she consulted but never acknowledged.
The Senecans took their name from their taste for the work of Lucius Annaeus Seneca, a philosopher, courtier and acquirer of massive wealth from the age of the Emperor Nero. Blending memoir with ancient and modern politics in the manner of his acclaimed diaries, On the Spartacus Road and Alexandria, Stothard sheds a sideways light on recent history. In finally identifying his interviewer he also answers questions about his own literary and political journey.
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Review:
'[An] artful blend of fact and fiction... poetically written, supremely stylish' Emily Gowers Guardian
'Margaret Thatcher and Emperor Nero, two courts across two thousand years. A brilliant, haunting work from a modern master of memoir' Mary Beard
'[An] education in the random brutalities and routine betrayals of political life' TLS
'A blend of classical learning and political recollection [which] seeks to capture the mood and moment of the Thatcherite Eighties' Evening Standard - a Best Book of 2016
'Underscores the evanescence of journalism and of strivings for fame, position and affection, a threnody for doomed ambition... Finely descriptive [in the] grace of its reflections' Financial Times
'Intriguing and beguiling... proves Stothard one of the most avant-garde practitioners of the form' Scotsman on Sunday
''[Stothard] is one of those rare and extraordinary people to whom the classical world is as real as the contemporary age, if not more so... provides insightful portraits of his friends and a clear-eyed... assessment of their different roles in defending Mrs Thatcher throughout the extraordinary decade in which she transformed Britain' Standpoint
'This thoughtful and unexpectedly moving memoir... brilliantly captures the excitement of the Thatcher years' Wall Street Journal
PRAISE FOR THE AUTHOR
'Stothard puts his literary knowledge, journalistic skills and classical erudition to powerful use' --Giles Foden
'Haunting, erudite and beautifully written... it is proudly and defiantly, the very opposite of journalism: a fusion of memoir, history and travelogue' --Tom Holland, Spectator
'An intriguing book that is impossible to categorize: ancient history, travelogue, memoir and biography all at once... compelling' --The Times
About the Author:
'Margaret Thatcher and Emperor Nero, two courts across two thousand years. A brilliant, haunting work from a modern master of memoir' Mary Beard
'[An] education in the random brutalities and routine betrayals of political life' TLS
'A blend of classical learning and political recollection [which] seeks to capture the mood and moment of the Thatcherite Eighties' Evening Standard - a Best Book of 2016
'Underscores the evanescence of journalism and of strivings for fame, position and affection, a threnody for doomed ambition... Finely descriptive [in the] grace of its reflections' Financial Times
'Intriguing and beguiling... proves Stothard one of the most avant-garde practitioners of the form' Scotsman on Sunday
''[Stothard] is one of those rare and extraordinary people to whom the classical world is as real as the contemporary age, if not more so... provides insightful portraits of his friends and a clear-eyed... assessment of their different roles in defending Mrs Thatcher throughout the extraordinary decade in which she transformed Britain' Standpoint
'This thoughtful and unexpectedly moving memoir... brilliantly captures the excitement of the Thatcher years' Wall Street Journal
PRAISE FOR THE AUTHOR
'Stothard puts his literary knowledge, journalistic skills and classical erudition to powerful use' --Giles Foden
'Haunting, erudite and beautifully written... it is proudly and defiantly, the very opposite of journalism: a fusion of memoir, history and travelogue' --Tom Holland, Spectator
'An intriguing book that is impossible to categorize: ancient history, travelogue, memoir and biography all at once... compelling' --The Times
Peter Stothard was Editor of The Times from 1992 to 2002, the period of its greatest commercial success for a century, and before retiring recently was the Editor of the Times Literary Supplement. He was knighted for his services to newspapers in 2003. He has written extensively on politics and literature.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherGerald Duckworth & Co Ltd
- Publication date2016
- ISBN 10 0715651374
- ISBN 13 9780715651377
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages304
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The Senecans
Published by
Gerald Duckworth & Co Ltd
(2016)
ISBN 10: 0715651374
ISBN 13: 9780715651377
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