Beware the British Serpent

Offers provocative new insights into the war work of more than forty prominent British authors Provides a comprehensive analysis of the suspicions beneath the wartime Anglo-American alliance Describes the tensions that arose between the British Ministry of Information and the Foreign Office During World War II, the United States was the target of what Gore Vidal has called "the largest, most intricate and finally most successful conspiracy directed at it in the twentieth century" - Great Britain's "vast conspiracy to manoeuvre an essentially isolationist country into the war." In Beware the British Serpent Robert Calder examines British writers' involvement in this propaganda campaign, including lecturing and touring in the United States, broadcasting on American radio, writing screenplays for films such as Mrs. Miniver and This Above All, and writing articles and books for publication in America. Using newly uncovered archival material, Calder offers provocative new insights into the war work of more than forty prominent British authors, focusing particularly on Somerset Maugham, Noel Coward, H.G. Wells, Vera Brittain, and J.B. Priestley.
He provides a comprehensive analysis of the suspicions beneath the wartime Anglo-American alliance and describes the tensions that arose between the British Ministry of Information and the Foreign Office over the nature and direction of the propaganda campaign in the United States.