ISBN10: 0192122002, ISBN13: 9780192122001, [publisher: Oxford University Press, Oxford] Hardcover First Edition First edition, first impression. Some very slight edge wear to top and bottom of jacket and spine, corners very slightly bruised, not price clipped (£19.50), no inscriptions, internally clean tight and square, overall a vg++ copy. 676pp, illustrated. Liberal statesman H. H. Asquith (1852-1928), fell in love with Society beauty Venetia Stanley (1887-1948), in the spring of 1912. Over the next three years he wrote to her whenever he could not see her. He shared many political and military secrets with her and wrote freely of his colleagues in government, among them Lloyd George, Churchill and Kitchener. The correspondence ended abruptly in May 1915 when she announced she was going to marry one of his younger subordinates. The letters Asquith wrote to her during Cabinet meetings are often the only minutes of those meetings that exist and a crucial source of historical information on the formation of British strategy during the war. Although Venetia was intelligent, well read, and keenly interested in politics, she apparently felt overwhelmed by Asquith's demands. As a result, she finally accepted Edwin Montagu's proposal on 28th April 1915 and wrote to Asquith of her decision on 12th May. After converting to Judaism, Venetia married Montagu on 26th July 1915.The Prime Minister confessed himself utterly heart broken. Despite Venetia's affairs, ...

Oxford University Press, New York, 1982. Royal 8vo.pp.xix + 676 plus 16 black & white photographs, 3 drawings in text, 2 maps. Original brown cloth hardcover in pictorial dust wrapper. A Very Good Copy. ISBN 0192122002. Oxford University Press, New York, 1982 ISBN 0192122002 9780192122001 [AU]