THE BOOK OF THE YEAR, THE TIMES, INDEPENDENT, SPECTATOR, i NEWS AN INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER ‘A riveting tale of politics, war and erotic obsession’ Sunday Times ‘A slam dunk of a plot . . . extraordinary’ Nicholas Coleridge, Independent Summer 1914. A world on the brink of catastrophe. In London, 26-year-old Venetia Stanley – aristocratic, clever, bored, reckless – is having a love affair with the Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith, a man more than twice her age. He writes to her obsessively, sharing the most sensitive matters of state. As Asquith reluctantly leads the country into war with Germany, a young intelligence officer is assigned to investigate a leak of top secret documents – and suddenly what was a sexual intrigue becomes a matter of national security that will alter the course of political history. Seamlessly weaving fact and fiction in a way that no writer does better, Precipice is the thrilling new novel from Robert Harris.