The New Machiavelli

Feb 23, 2026 8:49 AM

Author:H G Wells,Michael Foot,Simon James

The New Machiavelli

A successful author and Liberal MP with a loving and benevolent wife, Richard Remington appears to be a man to envy. But underneath his superficial contentment, he is far from happy with either his marriage or the politics of his party. The New Machiavelli describes the disarray into which his life is thrown, when he meets the young and beautiful Isabel Rivers and becomes tormented by desire. At first, he struggles to resist and remain focused upon his familiar political, personal and social life. But as he soon learns, it is harder than he could have imagined to turn his back on love.

Reviews

A very special novel indeed

—— Tom Boncza-Tomaszewski , Independent on Sunday

Jones has a flair for luminous and accurate prose... A passionate book

—— Guardian

Gem-like, lyrical portrait of a girl growing-up

—— Boyd Tonkin , Independent

Reads like a luminous album of photographs marked by an almost unbearable sadness

—— Weekend Australian

An immensely well crafted novel

—— Sunday Independent

A transcendentally harmonious and compassionate work

—— Times Literary Supplement

A surprisingly tender book... Amid the terror a classic story about love sneaks through: love lost, love imagined, love morphed into madness

—— New York Times Book Review

Beautifully written... It puts a human face on the suffering inflicted by the Taliban... Disturbing and mesmerizing, The Swallows of Kabul will stay with you long after you've finished it

—— San Francisco Chronicle

Riveting... Spare, taut, and pristinely clear prose... An uncanny knack for making moral tension palpable... Extraordinarily moving

—— Philadelphia Inquirer

A novel very much in the tradition of Albert Camus, not only in its humanism and concern with the consequences of individual choices but also in its determination to bear witness to the absurdities of daily life... [A] chilling portrait of fundamentalism run amok and its fallout on ordinary people

—— New York Times

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