“They are on a par with Chips Channon’s similar private diaries, now published in unexpurgated form.”Ĭhannon, an oleaginous upper-class partygoer with a lethal eye and ear for indiscreet gossip noted in 1936 that King Edward VIII "is going the dictator way, and is pro-German.” “The diaries are a crucial new source for twentieth-century political and social historians,” Lownie told The Daily Beast. Lownie, and other historians who are keen to see the diaries, expect them to cast intimate new light on one of the most troubling skeletons in the royal cupboard, the Royal Family’s role in efforts to make a “peace” deal with Hitler-during four years before Britain and Germany went to war in 1939 and, more crucially, well into 1940, during which Winston Churchill’s position as prime minister was precarious. These are important historical documents bought with public monies and they should be publicly available.” Lownie told the Daily Beast, “I am delighted that after a battle that cost me my life savings, most of the diaries have been released. On Thursday, Southampton University, where the diaries are held, quietly made most of them digitally available online. When Mountbatten biographer Andrew Lownie sought access to them, he encountered a formidable alliance of opponents who wanted them kept closed: Buckingham Palace, government ministers, top officials, a university, and an army of lawyers.
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