A dark tale of greed, corruption, and unquenchable ambition, House of Cards reveals that no matter the country, politics, intrigue and passion reign in the corridors of power. What "House of Cards" creator, Lord Dobbs, can tell us about realpolitik". Financial Review. 19 March 2016 . Retrieved 21 March 2018. Ottima anche la scrittura, all’inizio abbiamo poi una metafora del potere politico con la falena e le lampade che ritengo splendida. My perfect weekend: Michael Dobbs, politician and author: The Conservative politician and author Michael Dobbs, 64, conducts a double life between the House of Lords and his home in Wiltshire". The Telegraph . Retrieved 3 June 2015. Dobbs recoge en este libro lo peor de la política en la figura de Francis Urquhart. La trama es similar a la que todos hemos podido ver en la serie, con la salvedad del escenario, del cambio de política y del pensamiento y humor inglés del autor de la novela; lo que hace que pese haber visto la serie de Netflix puedas disfrutar también del libro.

He is the son of nurseryman Eric and his wife Eileen Dobbs and was educated at Hertford Grammar School and Christ Church, Oxford University. After graduating in 1971 he moved to the United States. Some people want to take it one direction, others in a totally different direction . . . And actually, although sometimes I think we get the tone wrong, if we want to persuade people, it’s often better to talk quietly to them, which he’s [Cameron’s] doing, rather than shouting at them across the barricades, which is what many people have been doing for too long.” Prior to the final ballot, Urquhart murders the party's drug-addicted and increasingly unstable public relations consultant, Roger O'Neill, whom he forced into helping him to remove Collingridge from office. Urquhart invites O'Neill to his country house near Southampton, gets him drunk, and puts rat poison in his cocaine.

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Also a very important figure in this book is the journalist, Mattie Storin, a young tenacious political correspondent. Urquhart makes asides to the audience in the form of epigraphs at the beginning of each chapter (the original novel has no chapters). The late Ian Richardson, who starred as Urquhart in the BBC series, was a stage actor who had played Richard III among other Shakespeare leads. And Spacey had just completed a worldwide tour playing Richard III before beginning filming the first Netflix series in Baltimore in 2012. Department of the Official Report (Hansard), House of Lords, Westminster. "Lords Hansard text for 20 Dec 201020 Dec 2010 (pt 0001)". Publications.parliament.uk . Retrieved 3 June 2015. {{ cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list ( link) Francis Urquhart is not a unique character. Literature is rife with men and women who have discarded every single code of morality to find their way to the top of the pile. What does make Francis interesting is in how he embodies all that is rotten about mainstream politics and its obsession with power. Francis is all eloquence, charm and reason on the outside and a soul as dark as pitch on the inside. His machinations in and around Downing Street while vying for the position of the PM is what the book is all about.

The ruling Conservative Party is about to elect a new leader. Francis Urquhart, the Government Chief Whip in the House of Commons, introduces viewers to the contestants, before Henry Collingridge, the Secretary of State for the Environment, emerges victorious. Urquhart is contemptuous of Collingridge, who embodies the Thatcher-era rise of the lower-middle classes. Urquhart feigns respect, and expects promotion to a senior position in the Cabinet. After the general election, the party narrowly retains power. Urquhart makes suggestions for a hard-right reshuffle, including his own desired promotion to Home Secretary. However, Collingridge effects no changes at all, relying entirely on the advice of his party chairman, Lord "Teddy" Billsborough. Urquhart resolves to oust Collingridge.

It reminded me a lot of the pre-Watergate Washington novels I read when I was a kid, like Advise and Consent or The President's Plane Is Missing. I will start right out by saying that while I have seen advertisements for the show "House of Cards", I have never actually seen the show. This is an honest review of the book, not a comparison between the book and the show. Now that is out of the way, let's talk about the book. Overall the book has been a resounding success and the BBC and now NetFlix adaptations have propelled it into the public awareness at levels way beyond what the author could have hoped for initially. Ian Richardson as Francis Urquhart in the first episode of the BBC’s House of Cards miniseries. Photo: YouTube screengrab From 1983 to 1986, Dobbs worked at Saatchi & Saatchi as deputy advertising chairman. From 1987 to 1988, he was director of worldwide corporate communications. From 1988 to 1991, he was deputy chairman, working directly under Maurice Saatchi. [1]

He knows all their dirty secrets. He’s spent years covering up for them and making sure nothing gets out to damage the party. Now with all that knowledge he plans to use it to get the job he didn’t want originally and to punish all those that stopped him getting the job he was promised. Although Dobbs denies his first and most successful novel is a “book of revenge”, the story begins and ends with a toppled prime minister, and he does reveal that the book was inspired by his experience of politics. “Most of the stuff I put into House of Cards was material from events I’d either seen, or participated in, or done, or watched other people do.”

The writing in this book was also insufferable. The author writes in a manner that, while seemingly sophisticated, is confusing and challenging to follow. I had a hard time keeping everything straight in this book- who all the characters were, who had done what, etc. Normally I don't have a problem following even the most confusing of story-lines, but this book posed a serious challenge to me. I also found that the author wasn't very descriptive; he writes in a manner that is almost too straightforward and factual for a fiction book. Dobbs has raised money for his neighbour, who is paralysed as a result of a rugby injury. He walked from his home town in Wylye to his old school Richard Hale. He completed this on 27 March 2015. He is the patron of eye care charity, the Graham Layton Trust. [17] Namesake [ edit ] Ian Richardson won the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor in 1991 for his role as Urquhart, and Andrew Davies won an Emmy for outstanding writing in a miniseries. It all started because Maggie Thatcher beat me up and was actually rather cruel to me,” he says, looking softly out onto the Thames from a sunny spot on the Lords Terrace. “I don’t complain about that – politics is rough and tough. But it caused me great unhappiness for a while . . . [Despite] the fact that she could be absolutely horrid to me, I still regard her as being probably the greatest peacetime prime minister in the 20th century.”

Earle's rent boy appears in person at an important speech of Earle's, distracting him; subsequently, Earle is harassed by reporters who have been told of his indiscretion. An avid reader since the age of four, Ainsley’s love of books knew no genre. After reading, came her love of writing, fully immersing herself in the colorful, impassioned world of contemporary romance. What is follow is a thrilling story of political ambition, where life and death know no bounds, and in this political environment everything will be settled and ruled by man of power and greed. Una storia per certi versi simile a quella di Frank Underwood (ambizione, assenza di scrupoli, certi punti in comune nelle vicende dei due) ma per altri parecchio diversa. I had heard of the BBC mini-series based on these books before but never got around to watching them, it was only after discovering the American version that I decided to give the books a try. Being British and highly interested in politics I'm surprised I didn't discover these sooner.

Netflix To Enter Original Programming With Mega Deal For David Fincher-Kevin Spacey Series House of Cards". deadline.com. 15 March 2011. The Urquhart trilogy has been adapted in the United States as House of Cards. The show stars Kevin Spacey as Francis "Frank" Underwood, the Majority Whip of the Democratic caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives, who schemes and murders his way to becoming President of the United States. It is produced by David Fincher and Spacey's Trigger Street Productions, with the initial episodes directed by Fincher. This book was a roller-coaster of emotions. The main characters were a very nice pairing and the story wasn’t a cliché. At the beginning you may believe that, but the more you’re into the story, you will realize that is not anything like you thought it was going to be. It has so many twists and turns that is impossible to put down until you finish, and even then, you need more. It happened to me. I didn’t actually believe I was going to love this story as much as I did, but honestly it’s just the perfect instalment for the beginning of a saga. Jonathan Best is nervous at the prospect of meeting Maggie Reinhardt again. She's his one true love since their teenage years, someone he looks forward to proposing as soon as she arrives from Minneapolis. I had been right in the path of that bomb for much of that previous day, working in [then President of the Board of Trade] Norman Tebbit’s room,” he recalls. (Tebbit’s wife Margaret was left permanently disabled by the bomb).