A clever and fascinating blend of fiction with historical fact, giving interesting insights into an era of challenge and change, with a cast of characters from political life and some daring suggestions and plot twists.
Well worth a read, an intriguing story woven around people, places and events in a dramatic time in history.

The Intrigues of Jennie Lee by Alex Rosenberg is an intriguing alternative historical fiction, set in the turbulent period between the two World Wars. It follows the story of Jennie Lee, a young Scottish woman elected to Parliament as a Labour MP in 1929. It is a difficult time, the Great Depression is being felt around the globe and Fascism is rearing it's head on continental Europe. The author has re- imagined history to create a Britain where Oswald Mosely becomes Prime Minister and is involved in an intrigue which includes not just Jennie but also prominent figures like Elizabeth Bowes Lyons , Duchess of York and future Queen Mother, and former Prime Minister Lloyd George. As well as a political thriller, the author has created a compelling character in his version of Jennie , she is principled, determined and unwilling to accept the limitations society placed on her sex. I was completely hooked by her story with its many twists and turns . Overall a clever and excellently crafted work of fiction that puts a new spin on the political thriller.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

My thanks to Alex Rosenberg, John Hunt Publishing Ltd and NetGalley for the ARC. Intriguing and captivating, this alternative history to the one we know is an unusual take on events. Clearly if you're a purist it's possible you might not appreciate a history-changing time being overturned, but we must remember this is a fiction, a very well written fiction at that and an insight perhaps into the way people were thinking at the time. I'm not sure there was a character with which I felt much empathy. Jennie Lee, the main protagonist, sleeps with married men because she does not want to be held down by the possibility of a marriage proposal or having children. Her political leanings are far more important to her. She discovers her father is Ramsey MacDonald, someone who leads her own party, but with whom she has no sympathy or agreement. She does everything she can to bring him down, even finding herself within Oswald Mosley's set. Most of the fiction is based in fact; it is documented that Mosley was a womaniser with questionable morals and very seductive to both women and men with his ideas. This novel reimagines his rise to fame, with his becoming leader of the Labour party, which of course did not happen, and his comparison to Hitler and his beliefs. Jennie I felt was very mature for a woman of only twenty-four and I felt her ability to garner support and adoration from more sophisticated and learned MPs was questionable. She may have had the academic background but certainly I was not convinced she had the maturity to win people over to her way of thinking, like Winston Churchill for example. Having said that, The Intrigues of Jennie Lee was a compelling read.

I got The Intrigues of Jennie Lee: A Novel by Alex Rosenberg, from Netgalley for a fair and honest review.

This is an alternative history, novel set in the UK during the the early 1930’s when Ramsay MacDonald, the then Labour Prime Minister left the party and formed a national unity government, with the other parties at the urging of King George V. What book does is that Jennie Lee, who does not know that MacDonald is her biological farther takes this event and sends Britten in another direction.

What Alex Rosenberg did in this novel is write a great political novel up to and even better than, Michael Dobbs book, House of Cards. However what this novel does is use real people and just change one event that takes Britten in another direction.

When I started reading The Intrigues of Jennie Lee: A Novel, I knew very little of history of that time, as I had not studied this specific period in British history, I had heard of the major historical charectors, and i am sure a quick internet search would help any reader find about the individuals, however this is not something you need to to as the book gives you enough information on each, as a normal political novel would. Though I did look up the real events after finishing the book.

This is a great novel well researched and easy to read, flowing from one event to another one in a smooth process. So if you are into Alternative History, or Political novels or even just into a great story then the latest novel by Alex Rosenberg’s book then you should read, The Intrigues of Jennie Lee: A Novel.

I absolutely adored this book. The characters were so real that it sucked you in and made you feel a part of the story. You didn't want it to end!