Francis Wheen
Off With Their Heads
The Enchanted Glass: Britain and Its Monarchy
By Tom Nairn
Radius 402pp £25 order from our bookshop
During the abdication crisis of 1936, Edward VIII decided to retaliate against the Baldwin government by ‘planting’ his point of view – including his opinion of certain ministers – in a newspaper. The politician he chose as a go-between in this operation was John Strachey, a left-wing socialist. And the publication he selected was The Week, a radical scandal-sheet edited by the Communist Claud Cockburn.
@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Last Tweets