{"title":"Books by Sasha Swire","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780349145198","title":"Edgeland","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom the bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eDiary of an MP's Wife \u003c\/i\u003ecomes a beautiful discovery of Britain's great coastal path\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eEdgeland, \u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003ethe \u003c\/i\u003epolitical diarist Sasha Swire escapes the confines of Westminster to walk the northern stretch of the South West Coast Path. Starting at Minehead in Somerset, she follows the well-trodden path to Land's End in Cornwall, walking it in sections over a decade-long period, returning each year like a migratory bird.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe result is an immersive, beguiling and literary exploration of one of the most enigmatic, beautiful and popular coastlines on earth. It is also a contemplative and very personal response to a story about our English shore from pre-Celtic times to the present day; of the upheaval of rocks; of astonishing botany; of pilgrimage and customs; of the exploitation of resources and of dangers to come.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSwire identifies how important edges are to us as she walks, not only in how we see our world but in our attitude to it. She observes that the outside limits, the borders, the line where two surfaces of a solid meet actively, encourage not only flora and fauna but people to gather, create, generate resistance and build new ways of living and working.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe discovers that the path is not only a walk through Britain's windswept and wave-battered western fringes but a tale about how we and nature have, through extraordinary resilience and relentless spirit, learnt to tame the various forces that are stacked against us. That we live at the edge of the possible.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44581239521458,"sku":"9780349145198","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780349145198_3068c191-5dbe-4d9b-a3c1-efb4384463d6.jpg?v=1786013606"},{"product_id":"9780349144405","title":"Diary of an MP's Wife","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSUNDAY TIMES \u003c\/i\u003eBESTSELLER AND POLITICAL BOOK OF THE YEAR\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'\u003cb\u003eThe wickedest political diaries since Alan Clark's' \u003ci\u003eDaily Mail\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Riotously candid' Decca Aitkenhead, \u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'An acute political intelligence at work' \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Glorious, compelling, jaw-dropping'\u003ci\u003e Evening Standard\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat is it like to be a wife of a politician in modern-day Britain? Sasha Swire finally lifts the lid. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor more than twenty years she has kept a secret diary detailing the trials and tribulations of being a political plus-one, and gives us a ringside seat at the seismic political events of the last decade. A professional partner and loyal spouse, Swire has strong political opinions herself - sometimes more 'No, Minister' than 'Yes'. She detonates the stereotype of the dutiful wife. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom shenanigans in Budleigh Salterton to state banquets at Buckingham Palace, gun-toting terrorist busters in pizza restaurants to dinners in Downing Street sitting next to Boris Johnson, Devon hedges to partying with City hedgies, she observes the great and the not-so-great at the closest of quarters. The results are painfully revealing and often hilariously funny. Here are the friendships and the fall-outs, the general elections and the leadership contests, the scandals and the rivalries. Swire showed up, shored up and rarely shut up. She also wrote it all down. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eDiary of an MP's Wife \u003c\/i\u003eis a searingly honest, wildly indiscreet and often uproarious account of what life is like in the thick of it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA Book of the Year in the \u003ci\u003eNew Statesman\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eFina\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003encial Times\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eTelegraph\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eMail on Sunday \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThe Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":56286919033205,"sku":"9780349144405","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":57688207950197,"sku":"9781408713419","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780349144405.jpg?v=1792686134"},{"product_id":"diary-of-a-candidates-wife","title":"Diary of a Candidate's Wife","description":"Before marrying a man, always check he doesn't want to become an MP. At least, that's Sasha Swire's advice, having done precisely the opposite.   These are her diaries of what happened next: life as a candidate's wife, as one constituency after another had to be wooed, charmed and somehow persuaded to send her husband to Westminster - and, once there, help position him for power in a new court.   What could go wrong? Quite a lot, actually. A David-and-Goliath battle with a political big beast in the shape of Michael Portillo. A vindictive MP reluctant to pass on the baton. The endless struggle to restart the Tory engine on the damp spark plugs of moribund associations and their geriatric members. Dipsomaniac helpers. Then there's the small matter of keeping the family in check - not least a majestic mother-in-law and an over-opinionated father.   Amid the chaos comes plenty of unsolicited advice, from meddling constituency matrons to men with unchanging views in a fast-changing world. Next up, the Westminster worm farm, and a generation of politicians beginning to wriggle into the light - among them David Cameron, George Osborne and Boris Johnson. Somewhere in the mêlée, Swire suffers a brief attack of political vapours and tries to become a candidate herself - only to find a member of the Johnson clan blocking her path.   Funny, indiscreet and candid, Diary of a Candidate's Wife is part political comedy, part survival manual and part anatomy of ambition. The rest, as they say, is history.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57555339280757,"sku":"9780349149486","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-sasha-swire.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}