You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. This unlikely band of mavericks - who included a butterfly-collecting Old Etonian and a left-wing Welsh pacifist - spent five doomed years wining and dining the leading henchmen of Hitler's diabolical regime. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. This is the real story of a group of amateurs who went about a mission to appease Adolf Hitler and try to prevent another war in Europe that would surely escalate into a second global conflict. In this terrific debut, historian Charles Spicer genuinely enriches and deepens our understanding of the Thirties – the all-important decade in which the great and the good of these islands, scarred to the depths of their souls by the Great War, struggled to avoid a second global conflict.

Charles Spicer draws on newly discovered primary sources, shedding 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. 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. Both appeasers and civilisers overrated their own abilities and underestimated the evils to which they – largely unwittingly – played handmaiden. Kirkus, starred review 'As a lesson of history, this excellent book is a sober reminder to policymakers to look at the evidence in plain sight.Richard Davenport-Hines, TLS 'Spicer's book is a resounding success, retelling the fascinating history of the Anglo-German Fellowship. 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. Importantly, the author has provided a reliable and strong backdrop on the positions of various nations including Russia, Austria, Czechoslavakia (now The Czech Republic), Italy, France, and Spain (who were themselves split through civil war during the same period). This tale of the role of the (little known) Anglo-German Fellowship during Britain's slow descent into war as the 1930's progressed, is quite simply fascinating. The question is, when did the Service get involved in the whole process and where the private agents whose activities the author has revealed (though in reality just two) working for their own agenda or that of MI6 or someone else.

The extraordinary story of three men, a Welsh historian and political secretary, a butterfly-collecting Old Etonian and a Great War fighter ace. The process starts in June 1934 with efforts continuing right-up to the outbreak of the second world war in September 1939; with the addition of a further crucial commentary on the period from September 1939 through to May 1941. This was accentuated by the accession of Edward VIII, a man who was described approvingly by Ribbentrop as “a kind of English National Socialist”. The collective efforts are played out through the Anglo-German Fellowship and its German equilivent Deutsch-Englische Gesellschaft.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. The last two paragraphs of the book beautifully summarise the lessons we need to learn to navigate our current and future relationships with dictators and autocracies. And so, the stage is set for confidences, twists, dramas, alliances, broken promises, miscommunication, and double-bluffs. Spicer describes his intentions in writing Coffee With Hitler as being explicitly about those who sought to “civilise” rather than “appease” the Nazis. 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.