Margot at War: Love and Betrayal in Downing Street, 1912-1916

'A plot that Downton Abbey would die for' Daily Mail'A proper sex in high places scandal' Independent 'Books of the Year'Margot Asquith was perhaps the most daring and unconventional Prime Minister's wife in British history.Known for her wit, style and habit of speaking her mind, she transformed 10 Downing Street into a glittering social and intellectual salon.Yet her last four years at Number 10 were a period of intense emotional and political turmoil in her private and public life.In 1912 rumblings of discontent and cries for social reform were encroaching on all sides - from suffragettes, striking workers and Irish nationalists.Against this background of a government beset with troubles, the Prime Minister fell desperately in love with his daughter's best friend, Venetia Stanley; to complicate matters, so did his Private Secretary.Margot's relationship with her husband was already bedevilled by her stepdaughter's jealous adoration of her father.The outbreak of the First World War on