Members & Founders' Circle event: Allies at War, with Tim Bouverie and Lord Soames (In person)
After the fall of France in June 1940, all that stood between Adolf Hitler and total victory was a narrow stretch of water and the defiance of the British people. Desperate for allies, Winston Churchill did everything he could to bring the United States into the conflict, drive the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany apart and persuade neutral countries to resist German domination.
Yet while the Grand Alliance was sophisticated, mighty and conquering, it was also duplicitous and rivalrous. The Allies were united in their desire to defeat the Axis, yet they were divided over grand strategy, finance, imperialism, the allocation of resources and the future peace. Bestselling historian and Library member, Tim Bouverie’s new book Allies at War, draws on more than a hundred archives, firsthand accounts and unpublished diaries, to reveal the political drama behind the military events. In conversation with Churchill’s grandson, Lord Soames of Fletching, they discuss the fraught and complicated politics of defeating Hitler and the ramifications and lessons for today.
The talk will be preceded by a drinks reception in The Reading Room.
This is a Founders' Circle event and is also open to London Library members plus a guest. Tickets are free but booking is essential.
Tim Bouverie is the author of the Sunday Times bestseller Appeasing Hitler: Chamberlain Churchill and the Road to War, shortlisted for the Orwell Prize. He studied history at Christ Church, Oxford and was the 2020-21 Alistair Horne Fellow at St Antony’s College, Oxford.
Lord Soames served in the British Army before beginning his 36-year career in Parliament, where he held a number of senior Government roles including Minister for Defence and Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. He was appointed to the House of Lords in 2022.
Tim Bouverie’s Allies at War will be available to buy at the event and online from our partner bookshop Hatchards.
This event will take place in person at The London Library. Doors and drinks are at 6.30pm and the talk will begin at 7pm.
Please see our Event Access Guidelines before you arrive.
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