"Banker, Traitor, Scapegoat, Spy"

[Moonraker]

Today's Sunday Times' Culture supplement carries a review of Banker, Traitor, Scapegoat, Spy by Antony Lentin (Haus, £12.99, also available as an ebook). It's the true story of Sir Edgar Speyer, a "financial wizard" who was born in New York in 1862 but who was brought up in Germany before becoming a British subject. Though supporting Britain's war effort, he carried on as a partner in a pro-German finance house run by his brother in New York.

He was dining with Herbert Asquith, the prime minister, in October 1914, which prompted an invented story that Asquith had drunkenly revealed the position of the British fleet and that Speyer was passing information to the enemy.

Somewhat foolishly, his telegram address was "Spy, London" and there were accusations that he was signalling to enemy ships with his car headlights. After his Mayfair house was besieged by agitators, he and his German wife and children fled to the States, returning to Britain in 1921 for him to be stripped of his British citizenship and then returning to America. He was accused of "trading with the enemy" after illegally sending money to Germany out of kindness.

The reviewer describes the book as an "instructive and poignant study".

Moonraker

(I'm not going to get into the habit of pinching reviews, as there's going to be dozens? hundreds? relating to Great War books over the next two years, but the theme of this particular work struck a a chord with me.)

[David_Underdown]

An interesting character. Before the war he had been made a baronet and privy counsellor. He also took over the funding of the Proms when Newman ran into financial trouble