a b c "House of Cards creator Michael Dobbs: "I must have sold my soul" ". New Statesman. 7 July 2015 . Retrieved 21 March 2018.

I had been right in the path of that bomb for much of that previous day, working in [then President of the Board of Trade] Norman Tebbit’s room,” he recalls. (Tebbit’s wife Margaret was left permanently disabled by the bomb). House of Cards is a 1990 British political thriller television serial in four episodes, set after the end of Margaret Thatcher's tenure as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. It was televised by the BBC from 18 November to 9 December 1990. Released to critical and popular acclaim for its writing, direction, and performances, it is considered one of the greatest British television shows ever made.

A variation on the phrase was written into the TV adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Hogfather for the character Death, as an in-joke on the fact that he was voiced by Richardson. The novel was followed by two sequels: To Play the King and The Final Cut. Both were adapted for television by the BBC and aired in 1993 and 1995 respectively. The first instalment of the TV series coincidentally aired two days before the Conservative Party leadership election. [4] During a time of "disillusionment with politics", the series "caught the nation's mood". [7] He is now a full time writer and divides his time between London and Wiltshire, where he says that he lives near a church and a pub! He is married with four children. a b c d "Richardson's rule in House of Cards". London: BBC. 9 February 2007 . Retrieved 4 June 2008.

The Conservative party conference is held in Bournemouth. (In the television series it is held in Brighton.)This is not to say that some events, particualrly in the second half of the book are not a result of a significant artistic licence, although one does at times wonder about there being many more skeletons in the closets than commonly known. I guess some of the wit and dark portrayal are a result of the author's grudge with his party at the time of writing the book but in all honesty, these make it a much more enjoyable read overall - in the end it is ot intended as a dry bit of balanced non-fiction of the Tory party. He knows all their dirty secrets. He’s spent years covering up for them and making sure nothing gets out to damage the party. Now with all that knowledge he plans to use it to get the job he didn’t want originally and to punish all those that stopped him getting the job he was promised. Maggie tried to do what was right for the family business, but for the wrong reasons. There were so many people that betrayed her trust and it wasn’t much of a surprise that she felt going it alone was her best option. She was wrong more often than not, but her family and Jonnie were there to catch her.

Michael John Dobbs, Baron Dobbs (born 14 November 1948) is a British Conservative politician and author, best known for his House of Cards trilogy. But there’s still a glint of the old steel: “This isn’t a perfect place,” he admits. “We do have people who shouldn’t be here, absolutely clear about that. We don’t have the right procedures to get rid of them, no matter how hard we try.”Prior to the final ballot, Urquhart murders the party's drug-addicted and increasingly unstable public relations consultant, Roger O'Neill, whom he forced into helping him to remove Collingridge from office. Urquhart invites O'Neill to his country house near Southampton, gets him drunk, and puts rat poison in his cocaine. As a former advisor to Margaret Thatcher, Conservative Party Chief of Staff, and now peer of the realm and Conservative member of the House of Lords, Baron Dobbs provides an insider look at the twists and turns of British politics. Urquhart es tremendamente bueno en lo que hace; es el típico político con el que puedes disfrutar viendo cómo se maneja entre el nido de ratas de forman tanto él como el resto de políticos, nido del cual tiene que ser el peor para que el resto le tengan el respeto que precisa si no quiere ser acribillado por cualquiera de sus «colegas»; es el prototipo perfecto de político que bajo ningún concepto querrías que gobernara en tu país o ciudad… pero a la vez, por todo lo anteriormente expuesto, es quien más posibilidades tiene de ser elegido. Porque no dudará un instante en llevarse por delante a quien haga falta con tal de hacer realidad sus aspiraciones. He was considered a masterful political operator and was called "Westminster’s baby-faced hit man", by The Guardian in 1987. In the John Major government, he served as Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party from 1994 to 1995, after which he retired from politics.

After gaining his PhD he returned to England and began working in London for the Conservative Party. He was an advisor to the then leader of the Opposition, Margaret Thatcher, from 1977 to 1979 and from 1979 to 1981 he was a Conservative MP speechwriter. It certainly conditioned my view about my own political future, and how to protect my family while I was doing it. It was certainly a major step on the way to being who or what I am today.”

Customer reviews

He adds: “What makes them different, more obsessive, more driven, is that there is a worm inside them, a worm of shame or guilt or anger that drives them beyond the normal, which is why they end up being able to do what they do.” Michael Dobbs' writing career began in 1989 with the publication of House of Cards, the first in what would become a trilogy of political thrillers with Francis Urquhart as the central character; House of Cards was followed by To Play the King in 1992 and The Final Cut in 1994. In 1990 House of Cards was turned into a television mini-series which received 14 BAFTA nominations and two BAFTA wins and was voted the 84th Best British Show in History. [14] Netflix produced a US version based upon Dobbs's first novel and its BBC adaptation. He was an executive producer of the American series. [15] It was rather symbolic,” Dobbs reflects. “Airey was murdered almost at the start, it was the 1979 election, as the election campaign was starting – Ian was murdered pretty much right at the end . . .