Half in Love

Richard McAllister, a young minister in the government, has temporarily left the Cabinet while recovering from being stabbed by a thug at a football match. He has decided, while recuperating, to go to South Africa to research a relative and his account of the horse in the Boer War. While in Mafeking, he is called back to London because his passionate affair with an actress has become public knowledge. From that moment, the love affair becomes almost impossibly fraught. The press hound them, the government spin doctors try to suppress all news and Joanna's husband becomes very vindictive. The lovers are parted, and Joanna goes to America.

This is a novel about contemporary politics, the power of film, the nature of history and above all about two people caught hopelessly in love, subject to the stresses of fame and scandal. It is an exceptional achievement.

“Half In Love has the invigorating feel and racing pace of any good love story - Hampstead and Highgate ExpressCartwright's tender, ironic, but ultimately optimistic dissection of human love is as shrewd and unshrinking as his conclusions about politics and journalism... Half in Love is a marvel of compression, of characterisation and of tightly cast thought. It is also very moving and utterly gripping, to which the author has cleverly added a sly whiff of the roman-?-clef. - The TimesHalf in Love is a marvellous novel, serious, moving, compelling, wholly credible. - Weekend ScotsmanIntelligent and lucid - The TimesCartwright has an unfashionable ear for sincerity, which ambushes modern readers used to seeing the false and flaky exposed. - Saturday TelegraphThis fine novel is also a powerful, irrestibly page-turning love-story. - Harpers & Queen[An] urbanely intelligent story of political and sexual manners - The Sunday TimesAn absorbing novel... the writing is elegant and crisp - Sunday Telegraph”

Half In Love has the invigorating feel and racing pace of any good love story - Hampstead and Highgate Express

Cartwright's tender, ironic, but ultimately optimistic dissection of human love is as shrewd and unshrinking as his conclusions about politics and journalism... Half in Love is a marvel of compression, of characterisation and of tightly cast thought. It is also very moving and utterly gripping, to which the author has cleverly added a sly whiff of the roman-?-clef. - The Times

Half in Love is a marvellous novel, serious, moving, compelling, wholly credible. - Weekend Scotsman

Intelligent and lucid - The Times

Cartwright has an unfashionable ear for sincerity, which ambushes modern readers used to seeing the false and flaky exposed. - Saturday Telegraph

This fine novel is also a powerful, irrestibly page-turning love-story. - Harpers & Queen

[An] urbanely intelligent story of political and sexual manners - The Sunday Times

An absorbing novel... the writing is elegant and crisp - Sunday Telegraph

Justin Cartwright was born in South Africa and educated in America and at Oxford University. His novel LEADING THE CHEERS won the Whitbread Book Award for 1998. Justin Cartwright lives in north London with his wife and two sons.

Richard McAllister, a young minister in the government, has temporarily left the Cabinet while recovering from being stabbed by a thug at a football match. He has decided, while recuperating, to go to South Africa to research a relative and his account of the horse in the Boer War. While in Mafeking, he is called back to London because his passionate affair with an actress has become public knowledge. From that moment, the love affair becomes almost impossibly fraught. The press hound them, the government spin doctors try to suppress all news and Joanna's husband becomes very vindictive. The lovers are parted, and Joanna goes to America.This is a novel about contemporary politics, the power of film, the nature of history and above all about two people caught hopelessly in love, subject to the stresses of fame and scandal. It is an exceptional achievement.

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