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BRITISH BOOK AWARDS NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024

A searing insider’s account of ten extraordinary years in Parliament, by the former Cabinet minister and co-presenter of 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

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

Publisher Review

'A rallying call for those who think Westminster politics needs a kick up its saggy behind' * The Times *The Biggest Books of the Autumn* * One of the most devastating insider accounts of Westminster I have ever read. An instant classic of political memoir. -- Marina Hyde At last a politician who can write. Opinionated, lucid and thought-provoking -- Sebastian Faulks Any combination of insight, humanity, self-awareness and style in a political memoir is valuable. To achieve them all, as Rory Stewart has done, is exceptional -- Rafael Behr, author of POLITICS: A SURVIVOR'S GUIDE An excoriating picture of a shamefully dysfunctional political culture -- Rowan Williams Enthralling, appalling and occasionally hilarious -- Tom Stoppard Intense, funny, savage and profound. It's the best there is on life inside the modern palaces of power -- Michael Ignatieff, author of FIRE AND ASHES: SUCCESS AND FAILURE IN POLITICS An illuminating and excoriating insight into politics and power. Candid, angry, funny, and self-revelatory -- Jonathan Dimbleby Rory Stewart's book is essential reading for our times. Stewart manages to whisk us into the antechambers of power, and provide a "behind the scenes" look at politics, in the manner that the best science and medicine books reveal insider's views of those realms. Like his previous books, this one is also the chronicle of a journey - and it's unputdownable -- Siddhartha Mukherjee Engaged but objective, candid but not gossipy, and braced with strong conviction while accepting limitation. Rory Stewart has written a book that breathes life back into the cliche 'essential reading -- Andrew Motion How Not to be a Politician is one of the most enjoyable and revelatory political memoirs to appear in ages - beautifully written, self-mocking but insistently principled. Stewart manages to make a life in professional politics seem laughable, entirely indefensible, and yet ennobling. This is a book that will be read for decades, as a document of its time and as timeless literature. -- Steve Coll, author of GHOST WARS The Rest is Politics is by a long way the most popular politics podcast in the country. * The Times * A no-holds-barred account of what's gone wrong with modern politics, from the outspoken former Conservative minister. * Guardian, *Books to Look Out For 2023* *