Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
This book is, in essence, about the five days in May when Churchill had been Prime Minister just for a number of weeks. That was the time that a decision was being made as to whether or not the United Kingdom would come to some kind of arrangement with Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany or whether the country would fight on. And John Lukacs explains the complex politics of the time.
Your next book is all about the power of Churchill – Five Days in London: May 1940 by John Lukacs.
Yes. Actually, this book is in essence about the five days in May when Churchill had been Prime Minister just for a number of weeks. That was the time that a decision was being made as to whether or not the United Kingdom would come to some kind of arrangement with Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany or whether the country would fight on. And John Lukacs explains the complex politics of the time. And, obviously, the central and critical role that Churchill played in ensuring that accommodation didn’t happen. Much of the book explains Churchill’s capacity to lead and to persuade people in a terrible situation that they should stay with him and not surrender. He told them to go on fighting Germany, until victory. I think Churchill comes out of this as a very impressive individual.
The Nazi war machine was responsible for many horrendous war crimes and for me Churchill represented the antithesis of this. He stands for something that was decent and one of the things that impresses me about him is just his sheer leadership qualities. Qualities like that have always inspired me when I am leading war criminal trials. It is tremendously pressured and you are often up against people who simply don’t believe you can actually do it. I have always been impressed with him because he believed it could be done in the face of overwhelming odds, and he succeeded.
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Andrew Cayley has worked as both prosecutor and defender in genocide trials around the world and is about to take up his post as prosecutor at the Khmer Rouge genocide tribunal. He reflects on the pity of war, the power of inspirational leadership and the importance of bringing people to justice in order to create a better world.
