Politics On the Edge: The instant #1 Sunday Times bestseller from the host of hit podcast The Rest Is Politics

Rory Stewart

Sep 2023 · Random House

About this ebook

A searing insider's account of ten extraordinary years in Parliament from Rory Stewart, former Cabinet minister and co-presenter of breakout hit podcast 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

The Times Political Book of the Year and pick for *The Biggest Books of the Autumn*

Over the course of a decade from 2010, 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.

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 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.

Uncompromising, candid and darkly humorous, Politics On the Edge is his story of the challenges, absurdities and realities of political life and a remarkable portrait of our age.

**A FINANCIAL TIMES, GUARDIAN, SUNDAY TIMES, DAILY TELEGRAPH, TIMES, OBSERVER, i NEWSPAPER, NEW STATESMAN, PROSPECT, CHURCH TIMES AND SCOTSMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023**

Politics on the Edge was a #1 Sunday Times bestseller from 09.09.23–16.09.23, and 09.12.23–16.12.23, and 30.12.23–06.01.24

Ratings and reviews

Not just a political page turner but his narrative is engaging, he takes you with him on his journey, you are transported with him to Afghanistan working with the people to rebuild using historical crafts to the Eden value, expertly weaving in the politics of our times. I think readers whether apolitical, left or right, will take something from this. It is enthralling and educating. I've read the sample now I'm going to buy it.

Not a biography of Rod Stewart - bought by mistake. Thought this was a biography of the legendary musical artist, Rod Stewart. In fact it's a book about some politician named Rory Stewart, not really my sort of thing at all. I haven't read it, apart from the first few pages (when I realised my mistake). Is it possible to get a refund or exchange for a book that is about Rod Stewart? Thanks.

About the author

Rory Stewart served in the UK Cabinet as Secretary of State for International Development, and before that as Prisons Minister, Minister for Africa, Minister for Development, Environment Minister and Chair of the Defence Committee. He ran against Boris Johnson for the leadership of the Conservative Party in 2019. Earlier in his career he was briefly in the British Army, before serving as a diplomat in Indonesia, the Balkans and Iraq, establishing and running a charity in Afghanistan, and holding a chair at Harvard University. His 21-month 6,000-milewalk across Asia, including Afghanistan, is recorded in his New York Times bestseller, The Places in Between. His other books include Occupational Hazards, and The Marches.

Stewart is now the Brady-Johnson Professor of the Practice of Grand Strategy at Yale University's Jackson School of Global Affairs, a senior adviser at the non-profit organisation GiveDirectly, and the co-host with Alastair Campbell of the UK's leading podcast The Rest Is Politics. He tweets at @RoryStewartUK.