Perilous Question: The Drama of the Great Reform Bill 1832

Review Antonia Fraser creates gorgeous portraits of the landed aristocrats, who fought for the Great Reform Bill of 1832. It is a remarkable story told by an excellent storyteller -- David Aaronovitch ― THE TIMES Fraser's rollicking history ... brisk engrossing narrative ... as a pure storyteller she has few equals -- Dominic Sandbrook ― SUNDAY TIMES Antonia Fraser's superb narrative of the passing of the Great Reform Bill of 1832, one of the most potentially revolutionary moments in British politics, provides incisive pen portraits of all the major protagonists ― DAILY TELEGRAPH Britain, 1832. The 'perilous question' of the country's corrupt electoral system - is causing uproar. From the complacent Prime Minister, to radicals calling for revolution, Fraser expertly sketches the key players in a dramatic period of British history. ― HISTORY REVEALED [I]n her usual elegant style Antonia Fraser recounts the furore over constitutional reform as a thrilling adventure story -- Jad Adams ― BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE Antonia Fraser's sheer stamina - she is now in her eighties and a national institution - is an object lesson for younger historians. The clear joy and fascination she continues to feel for her subject shine through -- Lucasta Miller ― OXFORD REVIEW The book take the reader through a complex political landscape with the humour, detail and keen-eyed observations that have made Fraser one of the country's most successful historical authors. In fact, this is historical writing at its best because it actually reads like a superb political thriller ― SURREY LIFE A political thriller - Borgen in the era of Middlemarch ... It is a remarkable story told by an excellent storyteller, with a flair for character and a rare sympathy for context -- David Aaronovitch ― THE TIMES Book of the Week This is history as it should be written: lively, witty and, above all, a cracking good read. I found it almost impossible to put down -- Jane Ridley ― THE SPECTATOR Not a typical summer blockbuster, but Fraser's analysis of the years preceding the Great Reform Act of 1832 is a rollicking good read, with rakish revolutionaries and reforming heroes ― VOGUE The 1820s and early 1830s have all too often been seen as a historical backwater between the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 and the start of the Victorian era that began with the queen's accession in 1837. With Fraser's erudite and acute portrait of this age of reform, it won't be thought so anymore -- Andrew Roberts ― SUNDAY TELEGRAPH Her deft pen portraits and gift for dramatic narrative had me on the edge of my seat, even though I know the plot backwards -- Boyd Hilton ― LITERARY REVIEW Antonia Fraser's vivid account is particularly strong on characters -- Kwasi Kwarteng ― EVENING STANDARD Brisk and engrossing...Her book is a mine of juicy details, not all of the familiar. Until 1832, Britain's democracy was so ramshackle and corrupt that while Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield and Leeds had no MPs at all, the rotten borough of Old Sarum, which consisted of "a lump of stone and a green field", had two -- Dominic Sandbrook ― SUNDAY TIMES You could almost be reading a novel as the reforming Whigs take on the Conservative opposition aided by a cast of revolutionaries like William Cobbett -- Theo Walden ― THE LADY Fraser deftly charts the parliamentary brinkmanship - including the Prime Minister threatening to drown the Tory opposition in the House of Lords in a flood of newly created Whig peers - that finally brought victory to the Reformists, and nationwide celebrations at the passage of the legislation in 1832 -- John Adamson ― MAIL ON SUNDAY This, then, was probably the closest we ever got to full-blooded revolution, and Fraser describes it all with gusto. As she says in her introduction, we know the Reform Bill will pass, but the people who fought for it did not. And the people are the meat and drink of this story...It all makes for a rich landscape, a gripping tale and anothe