The Political Animal

Book excerpt: Jeremy Paxman knows every maneouvre a politician will make to avoid answering a difficult question, but here he seeks an answer to just one: What makes politicians tick? Embarking on a journey in which he encounters movers and shakers past and present, he discovers: � that Prime Ministers have often lost a parent in childhood � why Trollope is the politician�s novelist of choice � that Lloyd George once hunted Jack the Ripper � how an Admiral�s speech in parliament helped win WWII Where do politicians come from? How do they get elected? What do they do all day? And why do they seek power? All these questions and many more are addressed in Paxman�s thrilling dissection of that strange and elusive breed � the political animal.