Dame Rebecca West's analysis of World War II treachery and an exploration of the impulse to betray. Beginning with the trials of William Joyce - 'Lord Haw Haw' - and John Amery for treason after World War II, the renowned thinker and historian takes the reader from a London devastated by war on an exploration into the inner world of treachery describing 'the sufferings which overtake people who live unnaturally and cut the bonds which bind them to their own country'. Rebecca West describes the changing relationship between loyalty and treachery and suggests that a necessary part of our cherished freedom is that 'all men should have a drop or two of treason in their veins...'. As topical and relevant today as it was fifty years ago.

Dame Rebecca West (1892-1983) began as a journalist and a feminist writing for The Freewoman and The Clarion. She met H.G. Wells in 1912 and together they had a son, Anthony West. In 1918 she published The Return of the Soldier, the first of her novels, which deals with the issue of shell-shock. She married H.M. Andrews in 1930 and they then travelled in Yugoslavia gathering material for her famous Black Lamb, Grey Falcon. She was present at the Nuremberg trials, and, following the treason trials in London, published The Meaning of Treason. She continued to write and review with her usual panache and vigour until her death.