Haw-Haw : the tragedy of William & Margaret Joyce

A riveting account of the most infamous traitor of the last century. William Joyce - Lord Haw Haw - was hanged as a traitor in Wandsworth Prison in September 1945, the last man to be executed in this country under the Treason Act of 1695. However, as Nigel Farndale reveals in this meticulously researched and vividly written biography, Joyce was, in fact, not British at all, rather he was an American and his trial for treason was no more than an establishment fudge. Joyce, born in 1906 in Brooklyn, moved to County Mayo at the age of three and thence to London when he was sixteen. After being badly beaten after speaking at a fascist rally in London, he became a committed and obsessive anti-Semite, who effectively sealed his own death warrant by falsely claiming British citizenship to travel to Germany with Oswald Mosley in 1933. Just six years later he was offered a job by Goebbels' Ministry of Propaganda, and his famous broadcasts soon became part of the home front's daily life. Nigel Farndale presents a compelling and disturbing portrait of a traitor, drunkard, womaniser, brawler and unashamed anti-Semite, while exposing the truth behind his very public trial.… (more)