Coffee with Hitler: The British Amateurs Who Tried to Civilise the Nazis

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Photograph: PA View image in fullscreen David Lloyd George (right, with Winston Churchill in 1922) became a key figure in the Anglo-German Fellowship. The collective efforts are played out through the Anglo-German Fellowship and its German equilivent Deutsch-Englische Gesellschaft. Spicer, who has given close, neutral and unerring scrutiny of the sources, proves to be a brisk, fair-minded and authoritative revisionist… Coffee with Hitler should make it impossible to continue to lampoon the Fellowship as an unsavoury gang. Drawing on newly discovered primary sources, Charles Spencer sheds light on the early career of Kim Philby, Winston Churchill's approach to appeasement, the US entry into the war and the Rudolf Hess affair, in a groundbreaking reassessment of Britain's relationship with Nazi Germany. They were better known as David Lloyd George, Ernest Tennant and the Duke of Hamilton, and they combined high social standing with an unfortunate tendency to pursue freelance diplomacy unchecked either by government intervention or common sense.

A pacifist Welsh historian, a Great War flying ace, and a butterfly-collecting businessman offered the British government better intelligence on the horrifying rise of the Nazis than anyone else. Daily Telegraph 'This engaging book offers a warning from history that remains terrifyingly relevant today. Choice Magazine 'Spicer, who has given close, neutral and unerring scrutiny of the sources, proves to be a brisk, fair-minded and authoritative revisionist.The book works well as a companion to Tim Bouverie’s fine Appeasing Hitler, focusing less on the well-known events and figures of the era and more on the gentlemanly amateur diplomats of the day. David Lloyd George (right, with Winston Churchill in 1922) became a key figure in the Anglo-German Fellowship. The outstanding narrative reads like a thriller, taking readers from the salons of stately homes and St James’s clubs to the mass rallies and diplomatic backrooms of Nazi Germany. Charles Spicer reveals the bold attempt of a handful of British intelligence agents to infiltrate and civilise the Nazi hierarchy.

A pacifist Welsh historian, a Great War flying ace, a butterfly-collecting businessman… Coffee With Hitler offers a rare glimpse into a motley crew who would provide the British government with better intelligence on the horrifying rise of the Nazis than anyone else. Above all else, the vignettes and anecdotes make the key characters so real that it's like being there with them. Julie Gottlieb, professor of modern history, University of Sheffield 'A captivating and convincing revisionist history. The central characters are Philip Conwell-Evans; Ernest Tennant OBE; Grahame Christie; and Sir Robert Vansittart.

How wonderful, for instance, that when Sir Anthony Eden finally met Hitler (for one of the many coffees the book describes) his main observation concerned the quality of Hitler's tailoring. Coffee with Hitler tells the astounding true story of a handful of amateur British intelligence agents who wined, dined and befriended the leading National Socialists between the wars. This compelling book captures the double-edged nature of “one mainstay of British values” – giving “even the most blatantly disgusting people the benefit of the doubt.