Corridors of Power

Strangers and Brothers #9

by C.P. Snow

The corridors and committee rooms of Whitehall are the setting for the ninth in the 'Strangers and Brothers' series. They are also home to the manipulation of political power.

Roger Quaife wages his ban-the-bomb campaign from his seat in the Cabinet and his office at the Ministry. The stakes are high as he employs his persuasiveness.

Genres: Fiction, Novels, London, Classics, British Literature, Literature, Modern

364 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1964

About the author

Known British scientist Charles Percy Snow, baron Snow of Leicester, wrote especially his 11-volume series Strangers and Brothers (1940-1970).

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._P._Snow

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have often wondered how great it would be to have invented a phrase that enters the English language. The "Corridors of Power" is one such example of a phrase. To an English person, little more description is needed other than 'the corridors of power' to convey exactly what is meant. The corridors of power are where policy occurs. Options are considered, decisions are made, and resources are deployed. It is the hub of government.

And that is what the book is about - it is a story from the hub of government. The narrative centres around Post-War British Nuclear Policy. It is as relevant today as it was when the book was first published in 1964. The premise is quite simple. The Suez Crisis in 1956 demonstrated to everyone except the British that Britain was a former imperial power. That Britain was no longer amongst the first rank of nations. Some politicians (e.g. Roger Quaife in the book) understand this, and try to find a place for Britain in a Post-Imperial world. He is aided and abetted by a number of Civil Servants and Administrators, such as Lewis Elliott.

Sadly, the policy is ahead of it's time. One of the consequences of this new reality is that the UK can no longer afford to be a nuclear power. That was true in 1964. It is even more true today. The renewal of Trident, at a cost of upwards of £50 billion, will leave the nation naked of conventional defence. We currently almost have two aircraft carriers, but we can't afford the aircraft to go on them. This is the consequence of being a nuclear power. The truth that is revealed in the book remains hidden even to this day. Britain aspires to be a global power, but does not have the financial wherewithal to achieve this aspiration. In many respects the storyline is very modern - how to manage, or mis-manage, national decline. It is a lesson that our current politicians could learn.

There is more to the book than that. There are sub-plots involving the private lives of ministers. I found a modern resonance here. The possibility of a good policy being wrecked by a poor choice in personal life, the degree to which personal attachments and animosities can help to shape policy, and the slender margins between success and failure. In the book, Quaife wins his vote by 271 to 186; but in the curious logic of the situation, as he couldn't muster 290 votes in favour, he was regarded as having lost. If any victory was Pyrrhic, this was one. I liked that touch.

This is one of my favourite books. As always with C P Snow, it is written well, the plot flows, and it is difficult to put the book down. I found the theme to be very contemporary - even though the book was published over 50 years ago - and I found the detail to be very closely observed. I would recommend this book very highly.

[Esdaile · Rating 4 out of 5]

CP Snow writes simply and fluently with a keen sense of plot, so that his novels are a pleasure to read and, as they say "hard to put down". His strength is pyschology, reflected in acute observation and tense and absorbing dialogues. In fact his psychological observation of what motivates people to behave as they do, which is maintainned relentlessly throughout the novel, makes me ponder that had ne not become a civil or servant or a scientist, he might have enjoyed a a successful career as a psychiatrist. Although the story takes place in the 1950's, the subject matter, unfortunately, I am tempted to say, is as contemporary as ever, namely whether Britain should be or continue to be an atomic power. This is the story of one Conservative politician's attempt, doomed to failure, since after all we know this is contrafactual history, to ease Britain out of the "nuclear club". For me, one of the many grotesque absurdities of our time is that as member of the EU Britain 's right to have a nuclear bomb was never questioned, she could maintain as part of her "sovereignity"a hugely expensive nuclear strike capacity but was not permitted to unilaterally remove VAT from children's clothing! The fact that Britian and France continue to cling to the atomic bomb which they can ill afford, for matters of prestige and arrogance, what else? is tragic and ominous. The last British Prime Minister, Theresa May, of unhappy memory, began her dreary premiership with the statement that she would be prepared to erradicate millions of men women and children with her nuclear toy if the country was threatened. The only reason I might ever consider voting for the Labour Party is because it is the only party in England which might if in power, do away with this dreadful weapon of mass murder. I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the grim subject.

[Robert Ronsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here we are at #9 in the series and I've realised that one of the reasons I'm reading this (that I alluded to in my previous review) is that the worlds described are so removed from my own experience that the books instil in me a kind of envy. It's the same reason, that, when I was a child, I devoured Enid Blyton's Secret Seven and Famous Five books and the Swallows and Amazon series by Arthur Ransome. I am sure that envy of the middle class life was one of the reasons I was driven to exploit the social mobility of the 1960s. It makes me wonder whether, had I read these books in my teens, I would have sought an academic or Westminster life.
This novel was first published in 1964 and was written, therefore, during times I can remember. The language of this book is 'modern' and easily digestible. One of my findings from this exercise is how Snow's text has changed over time. Many of his characters in the Corridors of Power still stick to the old ways and the old styles of communication and this inversion of the current norm, where spoken language is more relaxed than the written, gives the reader added enjoyment. The character Hector Rose shines as a case in point.
CP Snow hasn't quite got to grips with emerging principles regarding the treatment of women, so is still able to get away with thus describing the thoughts of a woman who wonders why a man is indifferent to her: She was searching for something personal, a snub, a pass she hadn't noticed or had not responded to, but she couldn't flatter herself, she couldn't even gain that tiny bit of consolation.
The meat of the novel is about the development of a national policy on nuclear disarmament and the attempt to convert the resulting White Paper into law. In the time described (the late 1950s) policy was decided around the dinner tables of the great and the good. There was very little recognition of how decisions might play outside Westminster. Focus groups were as much in the minds of those who strode these corridors as was the idea that the masses would one day own televisions or refrigerators. As Lewis Eliot himself said: The danger was that we were listening to ourselves. It was the occupational danger of this kind of politics: you cut yourselves off from your enemies, you basked in the echo of your own voice.
Corridors of Power is I understand the most widely read novel in the series. It's certainly the most accessible so far and, more than any, it has a main plot that rattles along gathering a surprising amount of tension towards the conclusion. It's a good read but I have gained so much more from reading its predecessors as well.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember these books (3 volumes - 11 novels) as simply thrilling writing. I read this series nearly 25 years ago but it still comes down to one of the best reads of all. The author, Mr. Snow, was educated as a physicist but always intended to be a novelist and these novels show an amazing attention to detail with such lovely turns or phase and description. The characters are carefully drawn, the language rich and characters that people these volumes are wonderfully human and humane. The series begins in 1914 and follows the life of Lewis Eliot, a barrister, to it's conclusion in 1968. I think it also provides a wonderful panorama of English life through two wars. You have a fabulous treat waiting for you dear reader!

[Nicholas McMullen · Rating 4 out of 5]

the novel that apparently initiated the phrase of the title. set in late fifties Britain in the world of high politics and civil service culture it tells the tale of a progressive Conservative minister of defence trying to change defence policy to ditch Britain's independent nuclear bomb. based both on the pragmatic grounds of affordability and ideological grounds of resisting nuclear proliferation. it is a novel of political intrigue rather than ideas, bit niche but for me a fascinating re creation of a certain historical time and political culture. CP Snow was a scientist and senior civil servant so knew what he was writing about. it is part of a lengthy series Strangers and Brothers chronicling the life of Lewis Eliot but stands up as a read alone.
I find CP Snow an interesting and skilled writer although at times a little too clever with the inevitable patronising sexism of its time.
not for everyone but if you have an inkling you might be interested in mid century Britain and its literature and politics ( i know i am in a minority) worth checking out.

[David]

England in the late 1950s. The Cold War. No more superpower status. And what’s to be done about “the bomb”? It is a climate in which opposing the bomb automatically means one is either a communist or a traitor to Britain (or both). Lewis mostly watches as his Whitehall peers and former fellow Cambridge physicists try to work out where to stand, while sundry cranks busy themselves with oil and banana peels.

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

9) 'The Corridors of Power: An Even Bet'
blurb - It's 1955 and Eliot has turned 50. He was blessed with a beautiful wife and a beautiful child. Although not a career civil servant, he was now a fixture in Whitehall. His job was to co-ordinate Britian's atomic bomb project - not a task he relished. The Cold War cast a chill shadow across them all. One spring evening in the run-up to the General Election, he and his wife, Margaret, were invited to a party in Lord North Street, the London home of Roger Quaife, a youngish Conservative MP who was beginning to be talked about. It was an evening that set Eliot on one of the most extraordinary adventures of his career.

Dramatised by Jonathan Holloway from C. P. Snow's 1964 novel, "The Corridors of Power".

With David Haig [Lewis Eliot], Iain Glen [Roger Quaife], Juliet Aubrey [Margaret Eliot née Davidson], Ronald Pickup [Lord Reginald Collingwood], John Woodvine [Lord Gilbey], Jeremy Swift [Sir Walter Luke], Geoffrey Whitehead [Sir Francis Getliffe], John Carlisle [Sir Hector Rose], Christopher Rozycki [Michael Brodzinski], Julia Watson [Caroline Quaife], Avril Clarke [Diana Skidmore], David Leonard [Douglas Osbaldiston], Rolf Saxon [David Rubin], and Simon Firth [Philips].

10) 'The Corridors of Power: The Choice'
blurb - In the summer of 1957 they were in the thick of the terror known as the Cold War. The debacler at Suez had damaged Britian's standing at the top table; toppled a Prime Minister and made the new Conservative government very nervous. Eliot was working in Whitehall along side the new rising star of the Tory cabinet, Roger Quaife. The prize on offer was the greatest of Eliot's career. Against type and presidence, Quaife was working on a plan to scrap Britian's atom bomb. It was something Eliot believed in with every fibre of his being. This proposal will soon be published in a white paper that would mark an astonishing turnaround in Conservative thinking. Eliot was worried about their e nemy, Brodzinski, and decided to confide in his colleague, Douglas Osbaldiston...

Dramatised by Jonathan Holloway from C. P. Snow's 1964 novel, "The Corridors of Power".

With David Haig [Lewis Eliot], Iain Glen [Roger Quaife], Juliet Aubrey [Margaret Eliot née Davidson], Ronald Pickup [Lord Reginald Collingwood], Geoffrey Whitehead [Sir Francis Getliffe], John Carlisle [Sir Hector Rose], Emma Brown [Ellen Smith], Julia Watson [Caroline Quaife], David Leonard [Douglas Osbaldiston], Paul Venables [Monteith], Rolf Saxon [David Rubin], and Stephen Critchlow [Traford].

[Jak60 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strangers and Brothers is a series of 11 novels by C.P. Snow; if read "vertically" (i.e. in chronological order), the series portrays the life and career of Lewis Eliot over a period of time spanning more than 50 years (1914-1968). If taken "horizontally", each novel offers an insight into a specific theme or issue of the British society (political, academic, financial, etc) within the above timeframe.
I decided to intersect the series "horizontally", attracted by the specific theme of book 9, The Corridors Of Power; I can witness the book can be read independently from the rest of the series.
The novel captures a snapshot of British politics at a tipping point, the Suez crisis, which marks the end of the decline of Great Britain as a global power. The clash between the few in Whitehall understanding the gravity of the moment and of its implications and the many simply rejecting the idea and trying to cling to a past long gone is what keeps the narrative tension high all along the novel.
The novel also offers an insightful observation into the balance of power between politicians and civil servants: who really runs the state between "ministers who come and go" and the long serving bureaucrats who are there to stay?
Mind you, this is no "page turner"; the book would go down best if sipped like a glass of bourgogne next to the fire place more than like a vodka shot in a raucous pub. This is the quintessence of political novels, it's politics at the purest state, where compromise is elevated at the level of supreme art, where hypocrisy is an indispensable and not necessarily wicked means to greater ends. It's the world of Whitehall machinations, where policy and intrigue are created equals, where the unsaid counts more than many said.
C.P. Snow’s prose is elegant and understated, reflecting the style of the British high society of the period; the characters are masterfully fleshed out, multifaceted and complex in their vanities, fears and contradictions.
A superb read for those fancying a chess board game over a wrestling match.

[Edwin Lang · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been reading C P Snow's series Strangers and Brothers for about a year. There is something in each of them that intrigues me and something in the series that keeps me captivated. I think of all I have read to date it's been his The Corridor of Power that has resonated most within me. I guess, regardless of our walk in life and our profession, political stuff happens - we're invariably immersed in it no matter how hard we might try to avoid it - in both the corporate and personal spheres of our lives.

Overall there is a sense of hope in Snow's books, and especially so in Corridors of Power. I gave it a very high rating because the book seemed to possess everything that a story should have: people, their lives that aren't always on the straight and narrow, courage, villains, a sense of history (in this case England in the 1950's), anguish (I damaged a man to come to you), love, betrayal, The Organization Man, power, money: in a word - reality.

So we share Eliot's life and live it along with him - in this as a senior bureaucrat in the British government in the 1950's - and we simply seem to be there with him rather than observing a life lived as even an engaged reader might.

This might be a hard book for a young person to read because it lacks action and asks the reader to meander along, somewhat in the dark about what is happening, because even the narrator himself, Lewis Eliot, doesn't know. On the other hand, it is as Storm Jameson writes in Love in Winter, that whatever one's background, intelligence, experience and passions - when one is involved in politics (I suppose of any kind), then one has to be aware 'not indeed of its creed and doctrines but of the means of applying them in the long deathly serious game of parliamentary forfeits'.

Edwin

[Pippa Catterall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Politics are generally personal even when an issue as great as nuclear weapons is involved. In this instance that is certainly the case. The merits and demerits are touched on obliquely. I suspect that the folly of trying to retain great power status and the weaponry that went with it were for Snow too obvious to need spelling out, even though I doubt his publisher, the former prime minister agreed with him on this matter. Instead, the tension in this novel lies in the exploration of the political machinations of both ministers and civil servants, not to mention their wives and lovers and (fair weather) friends. In the process it also provides a glimpse into a milieu with which Snow was certainly familiar. To me, the rituals of dinner parties and clubland feel curiously dated, whilst the politesse seems shallow and trite. Yet it is all observed with a practised eye which spans from the dining halls haunted by nuclear physicists in Cambridge to the coteries of Whitehall and Westminster. There are, as this suggests a wide variety of sometimes tortuous corridors of power.

[Alex Bruce · Rating 4 out of 5]

The ninth book of C P Snow's Strangers And Brothers series is well up to the standard of the previous volumes with its telling insights into the machinations of government combined with well-observed descriptions of 1950s London. Snow understands human nature and makes his characters come to life. A joy to read.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary: An ambitious member of Parliament challenges Britain’s nuclear policy in the aftermath of the Suez crisis.

The phrase “corridors of power” has come into common political parlance. And it is C.P. Snow we have to thank for this. However, its use in the title of this novel was not its first. Rather, it occurs in an earlier novel Homecomings published in 1956. Both this and the earlier novel are part of Snow’s Strangers and Brothers series, written between 1940 and 1970. The novels narrate the education and career of civil servant, Lewis Eliot. This mirrors C. P. Snows own career, first as a physical chemist, turned civil servant, and later as a director of several science and technology organizations.

Eliot is serving an elderly cabinet minister at the opening of the novel, who is displaced, ostensibly due to ill health, by rising star Roger Quaife. Eliot continues to serve under him and is drawn into his ambitious, yet coldly realistic policy goals for the U.K. During this time, the country has come through the Suez Crisis, an episode revealing their declining power. Rather than to attempt to keep up pretenses, Quaife wants the U.K. to end its participation in the nuclear arms race, leaving it to the two rival superpowers. Much of the novel develops the efforts to politically sell this policy. Eliot’s role is to chair a committee of scientists to make recommendations about the policy. Quaife wants their endorsement, and all but a dissenting scientist get the message.

Eliot has another role to play as well. Quaife has the perfect political marriage, with a glamorous and influential wife (who is a good friend of Eliot’s wife). We follow them in the rounds of parties with rich and influential friends. But Quaife also is involved in an affair on the side. Eliot becomes involved when Quaife’s lover begins receiving letters threatening to expose the affair if Quaife doesn’t end it.

The novel builds toward twin crises as Quaife faces a political vote of confidence amid growing dissent over his proposed policy and his wife’s ultimatum to Quaife to end the affair. He has dazzled with his consummate political skills. But will that be enough to carry him through these crises?

The novel serves as a commentary on the U.K.’s relative waning power, yet is far ahead of the times. As of 2025, the U.K. is still a nuclear power and significant NATO partner. Whether it was Snow’s intent, it also seemed a commentary on the vacuity of political power. Indeed, I wondered whether Quaife’s affair was the one thing of meaning, of real humanity in a life taken up with ambition and power.

I think I only knew of Snow through his book The Two Cultures describing the breakdown of communication between the sciences and humanities. I came across this work as a deal in e-book format, not realizing it was part of a series. Even though it was the ninth in the series, it reads well as a standalone. I just might try a few more!

[Nigel Kotani · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm afraid that this book was simply too subtle for me.

Set around the time of the Suez crisis, it tells the story of a rising MP who takes the gamble of backing a policy of nuclear disarmament, tracing events from him being a deputy Minister in the Defence Department up until the time of a crucial vote on the issue in the House.

The book tells the story of alliances, decisions, betrayals, background discussions and attempted blackmail in the struggle to get the policy through. The settings range from late-night cafes to weekends in aristocratic country houses.

The book never really grabbed me, but it managed to hold my interest enough that I couldn't let myself put it aside either. The problem for me really is that it portrayed a bygone and unfamiliar era in which much of the communication between characters was through metaphorical nods and winks which I struggled to understand.

It's a good book, and was probably a great book when it came out, but its subtlety and nuance are of its era and deeply versed in the culture of parliament, Whitehall and the Civil Service. The combination of so many obscure elements - the book basically requires a knowledge of norms and manners which most people no longer have - effectively created a distance between me and the book which meant that I admired it, and to a large extent still managed to enjoy it, but without ever really warming to it.

[Ben Bergonzi · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of the many inherited books on my shelf that I eventually decided I might as well read, partly prompted by its title - surely one of the best titles a novel has ever had - and also by the fact that the university where I work has a CP Snow Building. More relevantly I was hoping for some of the believable voices and keen observation that Nigel Balchin offers in his 1st person narrative novels about 'men at work'. But while his book is structurally similar, Snow has a far less accurate ear for dialogue and spoils any chance of humour by the way he highlights his own perceptiveness. Both Balchin and Snow were clever men, scientists who became successful novelists. The trouble with Snow is that he lets you know, very elegantly, how clever and perceptive he is. Meanwhile his plotting dawdles. I doubt if there is any danger of many people reading this book these days, but if you want to immerse yourself in the male dominated workplaces of the 1950s, there are better places to go.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

A favourite book and one I've re-read several times, but on this occasion I found it a little disappointing. It's the story of how a senior (Tory) politician Roger Quaife tries but fails to change the UK's policy on nuclear weapons - to open the door to nuclear disarmament, in fact.

It has all Snow's usual strengths: deep insight into character and a sharp sense of the politics and power struggles within small groups. It's also a wonderful, detailed and vivid picture of the upper echelons of Government and the Civil Service during the late 1950s.

But the real drama and conflicts happen off-stage, elsewhere. And that means there's a rather flat feeling to the whole thing, especially when contrasted with the electric disgreements in The Affair, the novel in the Strangers and Brothers series immediately preceding this one.

[Colin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is part of the "Strangers and Brothers" novel sequence but it works as a stand-alone piece. The relationships between the main characters can probably only be fully understand by reference to the earlier novels but nevertheless, in its plodding way, the new reader can appreciate the point of it. Which is, for me, how a group of people manoeuvre themselves in and out of power and influence.

The setting is around the time of the Suez crisis and the fears of nuclear war. However, these issues are not really explored in any depth. They are more of a convenient device to allow politicians and civil servants (there is little to distinguish the two in Snow's world) to play against each other.

This book is recommended as it provides a glimpse of a narrow but fascinating world at a particular time.

[Filip Clarisse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hoe wordt in een faculteit een decaan gekozen wanneer verschillende hoogleraren zich geroepen voelen de overleden decaan op te volgen? Hoe komt in het parlement een strategische defensievisie tot stand en wordt ze uiteindelijk (niet) goedgekeurd? C.P. Snow is een meester in het schetsen van die processen, waarbij de rol van buitenstaanders minstens even belangrijk is als die van de protagonisten. Straf toch wel hoe hij in staat is een heel boek te schrijven over een defensiedossier waarvan de inhoud nergens echt goed wordt uitgelegd, al is het feit dat het uiteindelijk niet wordt goedgekeurd, m.i. niet echt geloofwaardig.

[Mark Baines · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is as good as its reputation.
A tad slow at times, this is a real classic providing an insight into the machinations of political life in Westminster.
Whilst not delving to any depth in the actual policy which provides the backdrop for this tale, the description of the merry-go round of social and work life involved in the development of policy making, is at times gripping as all the various 'plates' are kept spinning.
The spectacular use of the English language requires a dictionary at ones side at times. To describe the writing merely as erudite is probably faint praise.

[Toby Bond · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't find this novel as engaging as a time of hope and found myself drifting in and out of the political and personal intregues. Im onto the search now, so hopefully it'll pick up again as i found this story a little flat.

[Christopher Smol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jan 2022. Real interesting ability to temper its stakes (nominally important but abstract, and most people are mostly just risking their current career progression kinda way) while still being pretty engrossing? Lots of good committee placement politicking, much vocabulary beyond me.

[Cat {Pemberley and Beyond} · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book taught me the word "euphoria". I liked it

[R.W. / Gillian Westall · Rating 5 out of 5]

as true today!

Really gripping series about ‘public life’. Not an easy read - and 11 volumes - but beautifully written and engaging!

[Angela Gostling · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but I didn’t find it engaging.

[Mikee · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful, classical, book. Classical because Snow speaks essential truths and makes the effort to develop the "backstory" in as much detail as needed without losing sight of the main plot. The main line is a debate about what to do about nuclear weapons in midcentury England, centering on Parliament, where "the first priority is to assume power, and the second is to know what to do with it". It accurately describes the maneuvering, shifting alliances and double etendres inherent in democratic government. This book is number nine in the 11-volume Strangers and Brothers series. I just ordered number one!

[Malcolm Noble · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am most comfortable reading the old UK bookclub (Companion BC) of this one. The first edition feels a little clumsy to me, and it's not a book you'd want to read in paperback. Lovely atmosphere of political London and Snow presents his narrator as a true spectator/observer. Very well written, of course. A novel you can read over and over again

[Ali Miremadi · Rating 3 out of 5]

good stuff but probably only compelling if you love the world of British politics. fascinating to read from someone active in the civil service at the time that so many of the Civil Service had been opposed not only to Britain developing the bomb during the war but were also opposed to Suez later too.

[Toby Oliver · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read this many years ago and recently re-visited it, a well written political novel that hasn't lost anything during the intervening years, the wheeler dealing, and the manipulation of political power are timeless.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

From BBC Radio 4 Extra:
Post-war politics throws up surprises for Lewis Eliot, as a rising star enlists his help.