Justice stained

摘要

William joyce was not British, but wished he was. Despite being, in his own eyes, an ultra-patriot, he spent the war broadcasting for the Nazis. At the end of it, he was hanged for treason. Oddly, he made no attempt to use in his defence his links with the British intelligence service, which had persisted even during the war. There are many mysteries and puzzles about Joyce's life, some solved in Nigel Farndale's new biography, others just ably investigated. They stretch across the three acts of what he provocatively, but rightly, calls a tragedy. The first takes place in the seedy, cranky world of pre-war British fascism, where Joyce's intellectual brilliance and rhetorical skills made him a big fish in a pool ill-stocked with talent.