Lewis Eliot walks the echoing corridors of Whitehall observing political intrigues and shifting alliances in this exceptional portrait of the heart of the British government during the Suez Crisis. At its centre is Roger Quaife, an ambitious MP determined to denuclearize Britain. His weapons: persuasiveness and a consummate skill in top-level diplomacy. In the committee rooms of Whitehall he plays with the highest stakes imaginable as he challenges the Government’s armaments policy. What ensues is a fascinating study of power – personal and political – handled with Snow’s inimitable authenticity and intimacy. Deservedly famed as one of the most accomplished political novels of all time, Corridors of Power goes behind the scenes of the Cold War with precision and humanity. A meticulous study of the public issues and private problems of post-war Britain, C. P. Snow’s Strangers and Brothers sequence is a towering achievement that stands alongside Anthony Powell’s A Dance to the Music of Time as one of the great romans-fleuves of the twentieth century.