The First Lady

Ginny Edge and her husband Dominic were university sweethearts. Dominic would go on to lead the opposition party's parliamentary group. For years Ginny was content as a housewife, treating domestic duties and social obligations as her lot in life, never imagining she would be drawn into the vortex of politics. Then, by chance, she learns of her husband's infidelity, and her quiet life is struck like lightning. After the pain comes a cold, hard conclusion: the only way to avoid becoming a permanent victim of the system is to master it. From then on she sets her sights on becoming the First Lady—the wife of the Prime Minister—and will stop at nothing to get there. On the road to Downing Street, Ginny comes to see the sordidness and secrets beneath the glittering surface of politics: cabinet ministers, newspaper editors, clergy, even the monarch himself may become pawns on her chessboard, moved by her deft hand. Power games, interests and desires collide, and she herself must hold fast to her bottom line of justice and loyalty even as she remains resilient, shrewd and cool-headed. Alongside the main thread of the couple's election campaign, the novel runs a parallel narrative of the cleaner Ajoak's troubled life; the two strands advance separately until they finally converge on the eve of the general election, driving the story to its climax. This is another political novel by Michael Dobbs, author of House of Cards. Having served for many years in British politics, Dobbs brings an insider's feel for the workings of power in Westminster, and many episodes in the book echo real political events, lending it an authentic, vivid ring.