FIRE, feuds and a besotted queen; a nation burning to vote; history’s men, singed in a battle of wills; and One Nation, transformed forever.

It’s an exciting picture of British politics against today’s grey-toned scene, and Benjamin Disraeli, Victorian Britain’s Prime Minister twice over, had it all, said Douglas Hurd, the former Conservative cabinet minister, in his stirring Taunton Lit Fest talk.

Hurd spoke at the Castle Hotel on his latest book, Disraeli or The Two Lives – an entertaining exploration of the life of the divisive, determined and captivating orator – a man who once fought to be Taunton’s MP, and lost.

But it’s also the myths clinging to Disraeli’s dandy-ish cloak that Hurd wants to bust.

A big one, is One Nation – the concept Labour leader Ed Miliband has been applauded for reviving as a mark of Disraelian politics.

On the contrary, “Disraeli wasn’t a One Nation Tory,” said Hurd. “He saw Britain divided into two nations, rich and poor… in his novel, Sybil or The Two Nations, it’s clear he’s not keen on fusing them.”

As Queen Victoria’s right-hand man Disraeli knew how to manage his monarch.

“He was once asked ‘how do you manage the Queen?’ Disraeli said, ‘well, I never argue or contradict Her Majesty, but I sometimes forget.’ “I, too, have worked for powerful ladies where that seemed good advice,” said Thatcher’s former Foreign Secretary with a wink.

Disraeli’s predecessor as PM, Robert Peel, may have been the greater man and William Gladstone, the greater achiever, “but I’d rather have dinner with Disraeli,” said Hurd.

“He lived at a time when a minority had the vote, where politics was something people were interested in and cared about, when Parliament wasn’t very well-known, and he made it exciting.

“We live at a time when everybody has the vote, politics is regarded as boring and nobody votes . . . Disraeli was a magician who had an effect on people.

“Maybe one day politics will be exciting again.”

DAISY BLACKLOCK

  • Disraeli, or The Two Lives, by Douglas Hurd and Edward Young, is published by Weidenfield & Nicholson, price £20.