- ISBN 978 0 7206 1264 6
- Fiction
- Hardback
- £18.50
- 356pp
- Available
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Secret
Protocols
Peter Vansittart
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‘This is a book like no other: grandly powerful,
illumined by knowledge, insight, originality, evocative
of the depths and elations bought upon the individuals
by the instigators of history and the quirks
of chance. Let us celebrate Peter Vansittart as a literary treasure of
our time.’ – Sybille Bedford
Peter Vansittart has been acclaimed as England’s greatest
living historical novelist for several decades. Secret
Protocols is his final novel and
will secure the an increased readership to match his reputation.
Erich’s odyssey begins when
his Estonian childhood is ended by the outbreak of the Second
World War. He arrives in Paris, where in 1945 his life seems
full of promise. But a love affair drives him to England
to work for the Estonian government-in-exile. His imagined
island of monarchs, Churchill and ‘gentlemen’ evaporates
into one of scornful youth, insular adults and an underground
of spies, political crooks and fanatics. Sojourns in Europe
further underline that war and corruption are not extinct
and that, in his own life, the most profound shocks are those
of friendship and love. Beneath the drift towards a united
Europe Erich realizes that treaties do not always end war,
that solemn rites cannot guarantee love and that the inevitable
can fail to happen.
Praise for Secret Protocols:
‘Containing moments of extraordinary poetic beauty,
Secret Protocols also carries a scent more or less vanished
from the high-street display cases: the whiff of moral
seriousness.’– D.J. Taylor, The Independent
on Sunday
‘The intellectual vitality of Secret Protocols would
be remarkable in a novelist half his age. . . the style
is, as ever, abrupt, witty and allusive.This is not a book
for lazy readers, but if you like intellectual fireworks,
take Secret Protocols and revel in it.’ – Alan Massie,
The Scotsman
‘Peter Vansittart's new novel is the culmination
of a long and distinguished writing life . . . He places
the imagination above the intellect, revels in language
and writes in densely descriptive prose which is often
strikingly beautiful . . . this complex, enriching and
erudite book should be prized as much for its moral clarity
and profound intelligence as for its literary merit. You
only wish that those who make history had half the author's
wisdom.’ – Linda Burleigh, Daily Telegraph
‘The advance publicity for Secret Protocols announces
that this is Peter Vansittart's "final" novel.
Since, unlike most ordinary folk, writers rarely have a
fixed retirement date, I would assume that either the author
himself has decided that 85 is a reasonable age to give
up or, more likely, that his publishers regard this hugely
ambitious, sweeping novel to be a fitting climax to a distinguished
career. As, indeed, it is.Vansittart is remarkable for
being a carefullyaccurate historian who is also a splendidly
imaginative writer of fiction . . .This is a book to reread
and savour; powerful and unique.’ – Nina Bawden,
Guardian
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