The relationship between the PM and his remarkable young woman friend has been in the news recently thanks to an historical novel that fictionalises their association. For the real story, far more amazing than any fiction, read my book ‘My darling Mr Asquith’ now available in paperback. It really is the true story of one woman’s life set against the backcloth of the great events of the first half of the twentieth century. Its subject, the Hon Venetia Stanley was remarkable for what she was, what she did and the people she knew. It is a tale that embraces politics, sex, scandal, love and betrayal, the English aristocracy, the Asquiths and the Churchills, but also touches on strange (and some very strange) goings on in the social world of society in the 1920s and 1930s. No less an authority than John Julius Norwich, who knew Venetia well, wrote: ‘For anyone interested in the social and political world of the period covered by the two world wars, this is essential reading’.

Stefan