{"product_id":"9781961341906-kitchen-venom","title":"Kitchen Venom","description":"\u003cmeta content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\" http-equiv=\"Content-Type\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Political intrigue, sexual chicanery, disappointment, betrayal' combine with 'dazzling' effect (Jane Shilling, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Sunday Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e) in this scandalous novel that exposed the secrets of Margaret Thatcher's government.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs a senior clerk in the House of Commons, John is a man of gravitas, a well-respected widower with two grown-up daughters, who upholds establishmentarian codes of morality and decency. What his colleagues don't know is that he harbors a secret predilection for rent boys. Afternoon assignations in his current squeeze's discreet Earl's Court flat are one thing, but when his reputation, his job, and his relationship with his friends and family are all threatened, John takes desperate measures to protect himself. Set during the last days of Margaret Thatcher's premiership, and ingeniously narrated by an all-knowing incarnation of the Prime Minister herself, \u003ci\u003eKitchen Venom\u003c\/i\u003e is a lethally entertaining story of sex, secrets, and scandal.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA sensation when it was published in the UK in 1996, \u003ci\u003eKitchen Venom\u003c\/i\u003e cost Philip Hensher his own job as a clerk in the British House of Commons  an achievement 'all the more remarkable,' the \u003ci\u003eIndependent\u003c\/i\u003e noted, given the vehicle of this ruination was 'a stunningly intelligent, assured and compelling novel'.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'[An] elegant novel of poisoned love and intimate violence.Sharp and funny.a beautifully polished performance.'  James Lakeman, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Times Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"[An] assured and intriguing novel.Hensher's prose manages to be both immaculate and suggestive.'  David Profumo, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Daily Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Remarkable.a stately, inexorable pavane of yearning and violence.'  Jane Shilling, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Sunday Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'[Hensher] is an intensely sophisticated writer, a critic of discernment and exquisite sensibility.'  John Walsh, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Independent\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Impressively stylish.written with a formal elegance, in counterpoint to the chaos of the characters' motivations.'  Russell Celyn Jones, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Financial Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Stunning; beguilingly complex.'  Charles Osborne, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Sunday Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Set amongst the wigs and gowns of parliamentary officialdom, [\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKitchen Venom\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e] exposes the hidden tensions in apparently banal lives. The characterisation is incisive and the dialogue first-class.'  \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Sunday Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'His House of Commons is as tightly run as a lunatic asylum, as baffling as Lewis Carroll's \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eWonderland\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e.[the plot] is at first intriguing then wholly beguiling, twisting tight its threads of power, betrayal, lust and love.'  Michele Roberts, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Independent On Sunday\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A brilliant, hateful work.For what it's worth (and I did once work as a secretary to Margaret Thatcher) I think nobody has better described the trivial, as well as the grand, mechanisms of her mind.'  Matthew Parris, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Spectator\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Airy, felicitous, superintendent, Hensher releases his staggered secrets and recognitions in a smart but unpredictable procession of bad behaviours.'  Jeremy Maule, \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rarewaves","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57913345573238,"sku":"9781961341906","price":15.31,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0092\/7504\/8033\/files\/orig_41352943.jpg?v=1779350742","url":"https:\/\/www.rarewaves.com\/products\/9781961341906-kitchen-venom","provider":"Rarewaves.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}