The pinnacle of a generally unsuccessful political career for Henry ’Chips’ Channon was his time in the Foreign Office from 1938 to 1941 as PPS to RA ‘Rab’ Butler, the deputy foreign secretary. Channon forged a close relationship with him, and the Foreign Secretary of the time, Lord Halifax, was his wife’s uncle. Did this give him privileged access to information about appeasement, the build-up to war and the conduct of the war itself? Or were cards being played so close to the chest that even some at the heart of the machine had little idea what was going on?
More about the speaker:
Simon Heffer is Professor of Modern British History at the University of Buckingham. His most recent books are ‘High Minds, The Age of Decadence’ and ‘Staring at God, a history of Britain from 1838 to 1939’ that will be completed this autumn with the publication of the fourth volume, ‘Sing As We Go: Britain Between the Wars’. He has also edited the three-volume edition of the diaries of Sir Henry ‘Chips’ Channon.
