Munich: From the bestselling author of Conclave Paperback – 14 Jun. 2018

This is essentially the main theme of Robert Harris’ latest thriller which takes place over the few days of the infamous talks in Munich in 1938. The appeasers were the democracies – France and the United Kingdom and their respective leaders (Edouard Daladier and Neville Chamberlain). The warmongers, at least according to the author, were Hitler’s Nazi Germany and Mussolini’s fascist Italy.The most appalling feature – and one that is very well described in the book - was the casual, patronising and condescending way with which the democracies who were supposedly the Czech Republic’s allies, and Chamberlain in particular not only failed to represent them during the talks but essentially abandoned and betrayed them. They even went so far as to exert pressure on them and force them to capitulate to Germany and cede the Sudeten territories to them. As such, the Czechs were essentially betrayed by their supposed allies who rather behaved as if they were Hitler’s allies.Even if some of the features may be fictional or questionable, the main facts and behaviours are historically accurate. Chamberlain’s personality, character and motivations are presented convincingly, with a mixture of delusional sense of duty and of personal convictions according to which he felt obliged to do his utmost to prevent the outbreak of yet another world war between major European powers. Also well shown is both the lasting trauma generated by World War I which was still extremely powerful twenty years later and the fact that the United Kingdom was simply not ready and prepared for another conflict.A perhaps less convincing point is to show Hitler as deliberately seeking a conflict and armed confrontation, as opposed to the more traditional view among historians which is to present his successive moves as gambles and bluffs that played on French and British reluctance and unwillingness to stand up to the German dictator. One point which is however omitted from the book is the recognition that Germany itself, despite having started to rearm before any other power, was economically and militarily unready for a major conflict in Europe against France and the United Kingdom in 1938.Yet another well-made point is the presentation of the internal opposition to Hitler, opposition coming from the upper-classes and conservative elements, whether some of the industrialists, of the army officers and of civil servants, particularly in the foreign service. By 1938, of course, this was the only remaining opposition to Hitler since left-wing opponents – whether socialists or communists had been crushed (sometimes physically, as illustrated in the book through descriptions of some particularly thuggish SA), persecuted and imprisoned shortly after Hitler’s rise to power. Also well rendered in ways which reminded me somewhat of Fatherland – one of the author’s previous books on Nazi Germany – is the atmosphere of suspicion, fear and surveillance associated with totalitarian regimes, and with ruthless dictatorships more generally.A great and exciting read which was well worth five stars for me.

We go behind the scenes at the Munich Conference of 1938. Hitler and Chamberlain share the stage with fictional characters. The author tantalises us with possibilities and a few twists, making for a solid political thriller.The story is presented as it might be in a play. Act One begins in Whitehall, the second scene takes us to Wilhelmstrasse; in Munich we move between the Fuhrerbau and the Regina Palast Hotel. The cast is balanced between the British team – all decent chaps – and the Nazi leadership. Robert Harris seeks to rehabilitate Chamberlain - loving husband, passionate about peace and a tough negotiator.Into the main even, the author works the lesser known Oster conspiracy. This is where the two narrators come into play. Hugh Legat works in Downing Street, Paul von Hartmann has a post in the German Foreign Office. They knew each other at Oxford, of course! They are fictional but are credible types, if being provided with somewhat cliched backstories.I found some of the dialogue clunky, which rendered the conspiracy unconvincing. The book would be improved by a map of the different settings, as the action involves much to and froing: corridors and galleries crisscrossed, stairs ascended and descended, corners turned left then right. This reader frequently got lost. Further an appendix of participants in Munich would have helped – just who was who at the conference.Does it add anything to the vast literature on this subject? I don’t think so. Would it not be rather fitting to look at more recent episodes in peace/war diplomacy? Perhaps, but appeasement remains enduringly popular.Despite these reservations, and some flaws, I found it an enjoyable and easy read.

Robert Harris is one of my favourite authors in the faction (= documentary fiction) category. He writes about real historical events but creates a plot which makes them more alive and prevents you from knowing everything beforehand. In this case Harris retells the famous Munich "peace for our time" capitulation when Hitler still could have been stopped - maybe. All the important protagonists are there with their own names, except some invented minor actors, like the main character, the most junior private secretary of Chamberlain, Hugh Legat. Even his German counterpart and co-conspirator, Paul Hartmann is based on a real historical character who was executed after the failed attempt at Hitler's life in 1944.In the case of Munich, the timeline is only a few days, from Chamberlain's failed attempt to get Hitler to accept a delay so that Czechoslovakia could organize a plebiscite, to the signing of the Munich agreement and the euphoria of Chamberlain's return. Most of the action takes place in the fringes, like the failure to arrest Hitler (which depended on the refusal of the British and the French to accept the agreement so that Hitler would decide to attack), the attempt to get Chamberlain to see documents which showed clearly Hitler's true intentions as well as a lot of technical stuff about translating, typing and communicating. The main historical figures are described a bit more in detail and the portrait of Chamberlain is quite symphathetic. He is described as a person who is extremely unwilling to take the risk of leading Britain into a war when the previous one was only 20 years away. This puts him in a very difficult position when the opponent is a person who is all too willing to get into war, even though his generals believe that it is much too early (but who are ready to start a war a bit later). It was probably too late already in 1938 to stop Hitler, but that is impossible to know. The friendship between the two main characters, Hugh and Paul, dives the book an extra dimension. The details are interesting: Munich in 1938, during the Oktoberfest, Hitler's special train, the atmosphere in the German foreign ministry and the much more cramped surroundings of the 10 Downing Street. Less so the failed marriage of Hugh, which is an unnecessary English trope (coming from Le Carré and others).The productivity of Harris is impressive, so impressive that one would think that he is being used a model of Philip Kerr (see my review of Research) of a famous and extremely productive author, but at least in the book, there is no hint that Harris would be using ghostwriters. In any case, his books are extremely readable and fascinating for the historically inclined who does not want to wade through long historical tomes. The only thing is that it takes a lot to time to produce a new book (several month's in Harris's case) whereas it takes just a few hours of intense reading to get through it, So there should actually be a factory producing monthly Harris books to keep us readers happy!