HOUSE OF CARDS

Michael Dobbs has spent many years at the most senior levels of British politics, advising Mrs Thatcher, Cecil Parkinson and many other leading politicians. He worked as a journalist in the United States throughout the Watergate crisis, and after returning to London in 1975 played major roles in the general elections of 1979 and 1983, and was Chief of Staff at Conservative Party headquarters during the 1987 elections. He has a doctorate in defence studies. He is currently Deputy Chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi and lives in London with his wife and young son.

Part One

THE SHUFFLE

It seemed scarcely a moment since she had closed her eyes, yet already the morning sun was waking her as it crept around the curtain and began to shine on her pillow. She turned over irritably, resenting the unwanted intrusion. The past few weeks had been hard, with days of poorly digested snacks washed down by nights of too little sleep, and her body ached from being stretched too tightly between her editor's deadlines.

She pulled the duvet more closely around her, for even in the glare of the early summer sun she felt a chill. It had been like that ever since she had left Yorkshire almost a year before. She had hoped she could leave the pain behind her but it cast a long, cold shadow which seemed to follow her everywhere, particularly into her bed. She shivered, and buried her face in the lumpy pillow.

She tried to be philosophical. After all, she no longer had any emotional distractions to delay or divert her, just the challenge of discovering whether she really did have what it took to become the best political correspondent in a fiercely masculine world But it was bloody difficult to be philosophical when your feet were freezing.