Speaking for England

by David Faber

New book

Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This biography looks at the life of Leo Amery, alongside that of his sons Jack and Julian. Leo Amery, known as the 'Pocket Hercules' at his school on account of his short stature, was first of all a journalist, as he needed to earn a living, and then moved into his true love of politics. A contemporary of Churchill (who he first met at Harrow, when Churchill kicked him into the school pool) he knew virtually everyone in the government and important political circles from a young age. Oddly though, his influence and his political career fluctuated wildly between having great influence and being relegated to the sidelines. Amery himself had great self belief and there were others who shared them and helped him; but others found him argumentative, disloyal or simply too self opinionated. One of the problems seems to have been that Amery divorced political and personal friendships, but many other people took his opinions personally and found him hard to deal with.

In his personal life, Amery also had mixed fortunes. Happily married to his wife Bryddie, they had two sons - John (known as Jack) and Julian. It is hard to know whether things are said in hindsight, but Jack seems to have been a troubled boy from a young age - Julian's nanny refers to him as a strange boy and he struggled at school with discipline and a lack of remorse when he was found stealing from other children or misbehaving. His whole school career was a struggle for both him and his parents, as he ran away and was constantly in trouble. His father hoped he would settle at University, but he turned away from further studies and embarked on varying unsuccessful ventures - shady film deals, etc and had to be bailed out financially. He then made an unsuitable marriage, much against his parents wishes (who seem to have been always loving and understanding, despite the demands made on them personally and financially).

Julian was a much more stable character, who did well at school and only left University when WWII started, in which he aquitted himself with mixed success, but great bravery - often working undercover and at great risk to himself. Sadly, Jack's bad beginning only intensified with the war. Despite his father asking him to return to Britain from France and join the army, he made excuses, claimed illness and continued to have financial problems. Drawing attention to himself by letters in the press - questioning the government his father was part of, both the English and Germans became aware of him. Resentful, broke and disliked, he found himself convinced to go to Berlin, where he broadcast propaganda for the Germans, resulting in his being hanged for treason in 1945.

Although Jack and Julian's lives are part of this family biography, the bulk of the book looks at Leo Amery and his political career. A central character in public life, a keen mountain climber and an influential voice, he was Churchill's India Secretary. He was also very much involved in the campaign to remove Chamberlain as Prime Minister at the beginning of WWII (for those interested in that part of the book, I highly recommend Troublesome Young Men: The Rebels Who Brought Churchill to Power and Helped Save England). Leo Amery gave the speech in which he famously repeated Cromwell's words - "You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go." In that sense, he did indeed, speak for England. An important biography of an influential politician and highly recommended.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has an excellent title. Each of the 3 protagonists in this triple biography - Leo Amery and his sons Julian and John - spoke for England, but each in his own way. Leo and Julian were British patriots, John ('Jack') was executed as a traitor after WW2.

During his long life, Leo was involved both in South Africa and later in India. Julian fought alongside guerillas in Albania in WW2, whilst at the same time his brother John assisted the Nazis by broadcasting propaganda against Britain and her allies.

This complicated story of the most famous 3 members of the Amery family is brilliantly handled by David Faber. Full of well-researched information, it reads as easily as a good novel. This is a great book for anyone interested in the machinations of British politics in the years leading up to, and following WW2. It is also a readable 'human interest' story of the best kind.

[Francis Kennedy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fine work of historical biography covering the strangely fascinating political and personal lives of Leo Amery, British Conservative politician and contemporary of Winston Churchill, and his two sons John (Jack) and Julian. Leo was a brilliant scholar, Fellow of All Souls, and in his parliamentary career a right-wing Conservative ‘diehard’, resisting the dismantling of Empire and championing the creation of the Commonwealth as an economic unit competing with the Empires of Russia and USA, through Imperial Tariff Preference. Leo Amery was thus following in the traditions of Joseph Chamberlain, John Buchan, Edward Carson and Lord Alfred Milner. He also favoured military defence and intervention and was always fiercely opposed to Communist Russia. Although achieving Cabinet membership he clearly upset too many of his own party’s leaders and his ambitions for higher office were thwarted. But he achieved fame for his bitter attack on Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement of Nazi Germany, crying out ‘Speak for England’ to the Labour opposition in September 1939 and ‘in the name of God, go!’ To Chamberlain in May 1940.

Leo’s Imperial and anti-Communist passions were passed to both his sons, with differing results. Jack had a troubled life. Psychiatrists later argued that he suffered from what was known then as ‘moral imbecility’, the inability to distinguish right from wrong or accept responsibility for his actions - a condition which possibly may have applied to a couple of Western leaders in 2020. This led him to bankruptcy and criminality. During World War 2 he drifted through France and Spain and ended up broadcasting with William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw) for Nazi Germany and trying to recruit British and other prisoners to join a League of St George to fight against Britain’s then ally, Russia. For this treason he was hanged, as was Joyce, after the war.

Julian, by contrast, managed to tame his wilder impulses. He worked for the Special Operations Executive during the war, encouraging non-Communist rebels to fight the Germans in Albania, while opposing the Communist partisans who eventually were victorious. After the war he became a Conservative MP, later achieving lower ministerial rank. Like his father, he made himself uncomfortable for the Conservative leadership. Notably, he opposed Eden’s postwar policy of the transfer of the Suez Canal to Egypt, strongly argued for military action against Nasser, and supported Ian Smith’s regime in Rhodesia.

All three Amerys, in short, seem to have found themselves politically frustrated and largely on the wrong side of history, but remained convinced of their beliefs. The skill of this book is to explain and report the nuances of their actions and positions, the similarities and the differences, as well as the whole political and social milieu in which they lived, bringing in characters such as Churchill, Lloyd George, the Chamberlains and MacMillan. It is not a simple case of a statesman father, with a bad and a good son. For Jack’s trial, Julian brought back from Spain evidence in defence of his brother (a claim of Spanish citizenship) which was proved to be false. And Leo was also sympathetic to Jack’s ideas despite his treason. This book is too recondite for many, I suspect. But it is a good period piece and I learnt a lot from it.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 3 out of 5]

(word of warning, the David Faber who wrote this book and one on Munich is not the David Faber, the Auschwitz survivor, or the David Faber, the American journalist, whose works are all listed under the name David Faber - as of February 2025)

This is a good but rather old fashioned political biography of Julian Amery, a man who had an important political career back in the 1920s and 30s, but it is hardly that which earned him this 2005 biography. It was sons, John and Julian, but honestly really John, who was executed for treason after WWII. Julian is very much an also-ran in this story and none of his post WWII political career is covered.

According to the author Leo Amery's most famous moment came on September 2, 1939 he called out in the House of Commons 'Speak for England' in response to Chamberlain's weak response to Hitler's invasion of Poland. This cry was:

"...the exhortation: a stunning indictment of Chamberlain's prevarication, and one that set the wheels in motion for his downfall and replacement by the man who would lead Britain to victory, Winston Churchill."

So this is another stroll down memory lane to the good old days of Churchill saving the world single-handed. In the course of telling the tale little facts like that it was over nine months between Leo Amery's 'Speak for England' exhortation and Chamberlain's resignation in which a host of other events, including the debacle at Narvik in Norway, were more relevant.

But this is an old fashioned history which views events mainly from the House of Commons. I had hoped that there might be something interesting about the contrasts between Leo Amery and Julian Amery's empire policies and beliefs but, as I have said, Leo's career is not examined, and Leo's involvement in empire is seen purely from within Westminster politicking. That the fate of India was, for example, being forged in India, by Indians, is not something you would learn from this book.

But really Leo Amery, and Julian are only interesting because of John Amery, a first rate shit who behaved in the most appalling ways imaginable throughout the 1930s but who is only of real interest because of who his father was. He probably deserved to hang more than the pathetic William Joyce, Lord Haw-Haw, who went to the scaffold two days after John Amery.

There is nothing wrong with this biography, except its insularity. It also fails to tackle the consequences of Churchill's destructive and insanely ugly campaign to undermine all attempts to change British governance in India. Churchill was responsible for the deaths at partition in 1947 because he undermined every other earlier attempt to bring about change that might have avoided the nightmare of what happened at independence.

I just don't see the point of the book.

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a twisted family! The father was one of Churchill's closest allies, one son served in the milatary, and the other son was hung for treason. It's really an interesting read.