This Town, by Mark Leibovich – review

Many books have been written about the corruption, venality and incestuousness that characterise Washington DC, but none has been as highly anticipated or amusing as This Town. Written by Mark Leibovich, the senior national correspondent for the New York Times magazine, it has been on the minds of Washington’s chattering classes for at least two years before its release. Sparking that interest was the revelation that a young, ambitious Capitol Hill press aide, whom Leibovich had been cultivating as a source, was secretly forwarding him emails that provided an insight into how Washington really works.

That story was broken by Politico, the political web portal founded in 2007 that has revolutionised the way American politics is discussed (if there is anything like a Greek chorus in Leibovich’s tale, it is Politico’s Mike Allen, the mysterious author of a daily email newsletter who serves as Washington’s omniscient narrator). What might have seemed like an incident of minor significance to a select group of Beltway insiders was soon the subject of relentless media coverage.