Buddha of Brewer Street [Hardcover]

Michael Dobbs (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1997

Goodfellowe is caught up in an international power game played all the way from Tibet to the back streets of Soho. At its centre is the search for a child whose fate may decide the future not only of a nation but of an entire religion - the Dalai Lama. Also seeking him are the Chinese.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

For fans of the Machiavellian Prime Minister Francis Urquhart, the antiheroic protagonist of Dobbs's previous trilogy (adapted for TV as House of Cards, starring Ian Richardson), Thomas Goodfellowe, a decent, down-on-his-political-luck backbencher, is an unenticing replacement. Likewise, few readers will be tempted by the second installment's ludicrous intrigue involving the Chinese government's attempts to find and kidnap the newly reincarnated, British-born Dalai Lama. A former political adviser to Margaret Thatcher and John Major, Dobbs seems to have gone soft since New Labour took power, if Goodfellowe's soap-operatic midlife crisis is an indicator. With his wife hospitalized for depression, his teenage daughter hiding family planning and pregnancy leaflets and his junior ministerial career over, Goodfellowe is totally unprepared to be enlisted by Buddhist monks in the search for the next Dalai Lama. Dobbs delivers plenty of international cat-and-mouse episodes, stretching from London's Chinatown to Tibet, along with scenes of Chinese human rights abuses that would alarm Amnesty International, but none of this adds up to much of a read. Although there are good guys to cheer for and baddies to boo in the race to find the special child in England's Tibetan refugee community, this featherweight entertainment has no punch.

Copyright 1998 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

'Goodfellowe is a modern political hero with all the welcome weaknesses we expect . . . Michael Dobbs does for Westminster skulduggery what Agatha Christie did for the country house murder. He knows what we like and he knows how to spin a rattling good yarn.' Gyles Brandreth, Sunday Express 'Splendid, as good as anything Dobbs has done.' Sunday Telegraph

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 260 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers (December 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0002254123
• ISBN-13: 978-0002254120
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,111,043 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A delightful read, March 10, 2011

By 

Harry Warraich "Harry Warraich" (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Buddha of Brewer Street (Thomas Goodfellowe) (Paperback)

This was one of the first books I read when I was young, and even then it gripped me from the start.

The book itself if split into two stories, the first is about Thomas Goodfellow, an MP in London who is struggling in his daily life with his routine relationships between his daughter and his members of staff.

The second story, the far more interesting bit, is about the return of the Dalai Lama and those who wish to stop his existence.

The two stories eventually intertwine in a unique fusion which leads to an incredible and dramatic ending.

Highly recommended reading.

Harry Warraich
Author

(I've removed my product link, following a bombardment of retorts from a group of forum regulars)