The Centre of Things is an historical and critical essay on the role of fiction in British politics. Focusing on Disraeli, Galt, Eliot, Trollope, Wells and Cary among others, this scholarly, scornful and witty text is the first treatment of its subject for nearly seventy years. Features: Examines the 'Disraelian' type of political novel (in rapid decline today) with parliament the stage about which the action revolves. Describes another kind of political novel which subjected Parliament to the rigorous scrutiny of 'civil virtue'. examines the factors which made the political novel such a lure for publishers and politicians alike. disentangles the complex web of allusion, character and plotting which 'fixed' the genre. The Centre of Things condemns the self-deception of a complacent, incompetent political elite - left and right - within a state whose parliamentary 'elective dictatorship' have brought it to the edge of collapse.