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Noel Coward : undercover agent
article at linkThe secret missives During the last war to end wars Im conscious that I made little or no contribution. This time I am determined to play as much of a part as the powers-that-be allow me writing to Winston Churchill in 1939 If I ran away and refused to have anything to do with the war and lived comfortably in Hollywood . . . I should be ashamed to the end of my days to his mother, Violet, in 1941 I snooped around a good deal and flapped my ears . . . The Nazi propaganda . . . is very strong but is falling on the stoniest of stony ground reporting from Switzerland in 1938 to Sir Robert Vansittart, of the Foreign Office The pre-war past died on the day when Mr Neville Chamberlain returned with such gay insouciance writing in 1938 I have encountered a number of people who appear sceptical of Britains ability to . . . overcome the extreme challenges we presently face. I have tried to convince them that, though we may inhabit a small island, we never have been or ever shall be a small people assessing the mood in Hollywood in 1940 I am a trifle saddened by the behaviour of many of my actor countrymen of military age who scuttled off with such inelegant haste on British actors who were perceived to have betrayed their country by going to America Posted by: classer 2007-11-09 |
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