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An Accidental Villain: A Soldier's Tale of War, Deceit and Exile
From the bestselling, prize-winning author Linden MacIntyre comes an engrossing, page-turning exploration of the little-known life of Sir Hugh Tudor. Appointed by his friend Winston Churchill to lead the police in Ireland during the Irish War of Independence, Tudor met civil strife and domestic terrorism with indiscriminate state-sanctioned murder—changing the course of Irish history.
After distinguishing himself on the battlefields of the First World War, Major-General Sir Hugh Tudor could have sought a respectable retirement in England, his duty done. But in 1920, his old friend Winston Churchill, minister of war in Lloyd George’s cabinet, called on Tudor to serve in a very different kind of conflict—one fought in the Irish streets and countryside against an enemy determined to resist British colonial authority to the death. And soon Tudor, newly responsible for policing Ireland, was directing a brutal campaign of terror against rebel "terrorists" in the Irish War of Independence. It was a conflict he didn’t entirely understand but one he was determined to win at all costs—including utilizing police death squads and inflicting brutal reprisals against IRA members and supporters and Sinn Fein politicians.
Tudor left few traces of his time in Ireland. No diary or letters that might explain his record as commander of the notorious Black and Tans. Nothing to justify his role in Bloody Sunday, November 21, 1920, when his men infamously slaughtered Irish football fans. Was it retaliation for the IRA's earlier murder of British military officers? Also, why did a man knighted for his efforts in Ireland leave his family and homeland in 1925, moving across the sea to Newfoundland where he remained in quiet obscurity until he died forty years later?
Linden MacIntyre—a storyteller and journalist long fascinated with the toll of violence and war—has spent four years tracking Tudor through archives, contemporaries' diaries and letters, and the body count of that Irish war, in search of answers. In An Accidental Villain, he delivers a consequential and fascinating account of how events can bring a man to the point where he acts against his own training, principles and inclination in the service of a cause—and ends up on a long journey toward personal oblivion.
After distinguishing himself on the battlefields of the First World War, Major-General Sir Hugh Tudor could have sought a respectable retirement in England, his duty done. But in 1920, his old friend Winston Churchill, minister of war in Lloyd George’s cabinet, called on Tudor to serve in a very different kind of conflict—one fought in the Irish streets and countryside against an enemy determined to resist British colonial authority to the death. And soon Tudor, newly responsible for policing Ireland, was directing a brutal campaign of terror against rebel "terrorists" in the Irish War of Independence. It was a conflict he didn’t entirely understand but one he was determined to win at all costs—including utilizing police death squads and inflicting brutal reprisals against IRA members and supporters and Sinn Fein politicians.
Tudor left few traces of his time in Ireland. No diary or letters that might explain his record as commander of the notorious Black and Tans. Nothing to justify his role in Bloody Sunday, November 21, 1920, when his men infamously slaughtered Irish football fans. Was it retaliation for the IRA's earlier murder of British military officers? Also, why did a man knighted for his efforts in Ireland leave his family and homeland in 1925, moving across the sea to Newfoundland where he remained in quiet obscurity until he died forty years later?
Linden MacIntyre—a storyteller and journalist long fascinated with the toll of violence and war—has spent four years tracking Tudor through archives, contemporaries' diaries and letters, and the body count of that Irish war, in search of answers. In An Accidental Villain, he delivers a consequential and fascinating account of how events can bring a man to the point where he acts against his own training, principles and inclination in the service of a cause—and ends up on a long journey toward personal oblivion.
384 pages, Hardcover
Published August 12, 2025
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259 people want to read
About the author
Linden MacIntyre
15 books186 followersLinden MacIntyre is the co-host of the fifth estate and the winner of nine Gemini Awards for broadcast journalism. His most recent book, a boyhood memoir called Causeway: A Passage from Innocence won both the Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction and the Evelyn Richardson Prize for Non-Fiction.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
August 31, 2025
Sometimes an author needs to realize that their own skills can't always overcome a bad topic choice. I believe this is the case in An Accidental Villain by Linden MacIntyre. The book purports to be about Major-General Sir Hugh Tudor. There are two problems. First, Hugh Tudor apparently left no documentation to pull from when it came to the major focus of the book, the Irish War of Independence. Second, Tudor disappears for large swaths of the narrative, and it doesn't much matter.
From a prose perspective, MacIntyre provides an easy reading flow and his descriptions of various atrocities are graphic and moving. However, Tudor is a curse upon this narrative. He seems almost passive during the most important parts of the book, and MacIntyre is forced to guess about almost all of his motivations, if he had any at all. It felt like a wasted effort when I would have much preferred MacIntyre provide more background on literally everything and everyone else.
The final portion of the story is fully focused on Tudor, and it is even more confounding. Tudor makes some very strange personal choices, and of course, he provides no insight into anything. While MacIntyre can certainly write a heck of a yarn, he can't conjure a reason to care about a man who didn't care enough to explain himself. You are left with a man who was no accidental villain. He was just a villain. Even he didn't bother to defend himself.
(This book was provided as an advanced reader copy by Random House Canada.)
From a prose perspective, MacIntyre provides an easy reading flow and his descriptions of various atrocities are graphic and moving. However, Tudor is a curse upon this narrative. He seems almost passive during the most important parts of the book, and MacIntyre is forced to guess about almost all of his motivations, if he had any at all. It felt like a wasted effort when I would have much preferred MacIntyre provide more background on literally everything and everyone else.
The final portion of the story is fully focused on Tudor, and it is even more confounding. Tudor makes some very strange personal choices, and of course, he provides no insight into anything. While MacIntyre can certainly write a heck of a yarn, he can't conjure a reason to care about a man who didn't care enough to explain himself. You are left with a man who was no accidental villain. He was just a villain. Even he didn't bother to defend himself.
(This book was provided as an advanced reader copy by Random House Canada.)
September 1, 2025
3-3.5
An Accidental Villain is one of those books that's just a nice little slice of history. It follows Major General Sir Hugh Tudor from the First World War, to his time as leader of police in Ireland and Palestine, to the rest of his life spent in Newfoundland.
The First World War parts are done very well, but the best part of the book is hands down Tudor's time spent in Ireland from 1920-21, but it also displays one of the drawbacks. Tudor left writings from the First World War, but nothing afterwards save for some letters. So as you read, Tudor is there in third person but we never get to hear anything directly from him. A friend of Churchill, he was put in charge of the militarized police in Ireland. The brutality is incredible to read about. To think that police and soldiers were allowed to act the way they did is insanity: carrying out horrific reprisals, committing random killings, and punishing people with no direct ties to the IRA. While some were against such harsh tactics, Tudor was seemingly not one of them. This whole section of the book is as excellent as it is disturbing.
Once Tudor leaves Ireland, the book peters out a bit. Palestine was mostly uneventful and Tudor was ultimately sacked from his position. He ended up in Newfoundland were he got into the fishing industry and lived out the rest of his days, largely secluding himself. It's believed he might have been a marked man from his days in Ireland, but there doesn't seem to be any concrete evidence of a planned attack on his life.
This is a well organized book, and the writing is good. The subject is fairly interesting, but I can't say it's one that's going to stick with me. But there's nothing wrong with An Accidental Villain and I'd recommend it for the parts taking place in Ireland, or if you're looking for a sort of smaller scope, easy to read history with ties to Canada.
An Accidental Villain is one of those books that's just a nice little slice of history. It follows Major General Sir Hugh Tudor from the First World War, to his time as leader of police in Ireland and Palestine, to the rest of his life spent in Newfoundland.
The First World War parts are done very well, but the best part of the book is hands down Tudor's time spent in Ireland from 1920-21, but it also displays one of the drawbacks. Tudor left writings from the First World War, but nothing afterwards save for some letters. So as you read, Tudor is there in third person but we never get to hear anything directly from him. A friend of Churchill, he was put in charge of the militarized police in Ireland. The brutality is incredible to read about. To think that police and soldiers were allowed to act the way they did is insanity: carrying out horrific reprisals, committing random killings, and punishing people with no direct ties to the IRA. While some were against such harsh tactics, Tudor was seemingly not one of them. This whole section of the book is as excellent as it is disturbing.
Once Tudor leaves Ireland, the book peters out a bit. Palestine was mostly uneventful and Tudor was ultimately sacked from his position. He ended up in Newfoundland were he got into the fishing industry and lived out the rest of his days, largely secluding himself. It's believed he might have been a marked man from his days in Ireland, but there doesn't seem to be any concrete evidence of a planned attack on his life.
This is a well organized book, and the writing is good. The subject is fairly interesting, but I can't say it's one that's going to stick with me. But there's nothing wrong with An Accidental Villain and I'd recommend it for the parts taking place in Ireland, or if you're looking for a sort of smaller scope, easy to read history with ties to Canada.
September 12, 2025
After serving in Egypt and World War I as an artillery commander, Major General Hugh Tudor takes a two year command in Ireland, at the request of his friend Winston Churchill, as head of the police and the Black and Tans. The extreme violence and reprisals of the period color the rest of his life and brand him as an accidental "villain." His reputation follows him to Palestine and beyond to Newfoundland, where he spends the latter two thirds of his life. MacIntyre's research sheds as much light as possible on this reclusive and much-maligned figure to try to find the man underneath. An interesting historical figure. - BH.
December 20, 2025
Linden Macintyre, an award winning, well-respected writer and broadcast journalist, was curious about the life of Sir Hugh Tudor, who was appointed the chief of police in Dublin in 1920 by his longtime friend Winston Churchill. It was the time in history known as the Irish War of Independence, not a conventional war fought with military strategy on a battlefield, but instead, a time when the British and the Irish waged guerilla warfare in an attempt to eliminate each other and achieve their competing objectives. The Irish were fueled by their long-held hatred for the British Crown and their fervent desire to become a republic, no matter what the cost, while the British were determined to keep Ireland in the United Kingdom. To accomplish this objective, the British developed an aggressive strategy to put down the rebels and eliminate their enemy, their objective, a long-term peaceful relationship with Ireland but on British terms. They engaged in a brutal and violent guerilla war that claimed the deaths of rebels, priests, politicians, men, women, children and left psychological and emotional wounds that would fester for decades. The bitter conflict provoked debate for years about who really won, or whether there was in fact any winner at all.
Winston Churchill had met General Hugh Tudor while both served in the army in India. The two enjoyed distinguished military careers and when Churchill became Secretary of State for War in Lloyd George’s cabinet, he asked Tudor to take the post of chief of police in Dublin. His mission would be to champion the new British strategy which would include a civilian police force with an unconventional paramilitary mandate, one that eventually became known as the Black and Tans. Tudor accepted the post and began an experience that would profoundly affect his life. As commander of the police, he was responsible for a violent company of men who led a campaign of terror against the rebel terrorists in the IRA (The Irish Republican Army). His men adopted the same tactics as the rebels, encouraged to ignore the rules and follow their most violent instincts when engaging the enemy. Their goal, simply stated, was to stamp out terrorism by killing the terrorists. Both sides carried out clandestine night patrols and violent ambushes. They bombed businesses, burned homes, brutally beat suspects and carried out shot gun executions, often without evidence to support a crime. Those who sympathized with the rebels were also targeted. Their houses were burned down, their barns and animals were destroyed and the pubs and businesses they frequented were vandalized and looted. These tactics were carried out by men who were often drunk as they wrecked murder and mayhem in the streets, dark alleys, abandoned fields and behind shops and hedges. Anyone suspected of militant opposition to British rule, including the clergy and politicians, were at risk of becoming a target. Innocent men, woman and children were often caught in the crossfire and lost their lives to the violence.
Tudor had not gone to Ireland with a violent game plan in mind but had been persuaded by the senior members of the British cabinet that brutal tactics by the enemy justified brutal countermeasures by the government. However, when Tudor’s friends became the rebel’s victims, he grew more embittered toward them and even less inclined to stop the bloodshed. As the violence escalated, Tudor’s colleagues became uncomfortable, dismayed by his willingness to oversee actions that should have been repugnant to any military officer. But there is little evidence Tudor hesitated in doing what he believed was his assigned duty. Some questioned whether Tudor had been corrupted by his job or was dutifully following corrupt instructions from his political superiors. He was a traditional man, one who believed in loyalty to the British Empire and to his friend Winston Churchill, and both reassured him he was doing a good job. It raises the question of whether Churchill was really Tudor’s trusted friend or if he and the prime minister were using him to carry out a politically unpalatable dirty war.
In the past Tudor had kept a diary of his experiences during the Boer War and while on the Western Front, but left no record of his time in Ireland so we have no knowledge of his thoughts about accepting a position for which he had no experience. He had already done his duty for Britain, survived thirty-five years of active service in the British army and enjoyed a distinguished military career. Why did he not settle down with his pension and enjoy his retirement with his family? Whatever his thoughts, the twenty-three months he spent in Dublin redefined his life, his career and perhaps even his personality.
MacIntyre spent four years researching the life of the man he was trying to understand, a man who had never been to Ireland and was in fact indifferent to the long Irish fight for self-determination. He writes in shocking detail about the brutality and violence Tudor authorized as the man responsible for the Black and Tans and those details make for difficult reading. He describes a man driven to act against his own moral standards and questions how that happened. Was he driven by the assumed superiority of many Brits at the time? Or was it the belief he shared with Churchill that Ireland’s long campaign for self-determination would never lose its momentum unless it was decisively demolished?
In later life, after an assignment in Palestine, Tudor withdrew from his family, enjoyed few friends and spent his last days in Newfoundland, a place he did not know but where he felt safe from the remaining roaming Irish rebels. There were still some out there, men with guns, grudges and hate in their hearts who were determined to continue enacting revenge for the past. Tudor died in his adopted home in 1965 in relative obscurity, his grave now difficult to locate.
This is an interesting account of how a man may be brought to the point of acting against his own principles if he believes he is serving his country, only to bring his life to a lonely end. MacIntyre calls this volume historical journalism, a book he was led to write by his curiosity about Sir Hugh Tudor and intrigued by two questions: the nature of the bond between Tudor and Churchill and why Tudor chose to spend a good part of his remaining life in Newfoundland, far from family and friends.
MacIntyre is a meticulous researcher and the results allow him to cite many of the atrocities carried out during the Irish conflict. They are difficult to read and the mindless slaughter leads readers to wonder as MacIntyre does, how any man could have sanctioned such horrific deeds. In fact, although readers know much about the Irish conflict from the trove of data in histories, letters and the diaries of others, we still know little about Hugh Tudor, the man MacIntyre has tried to understand.
At the end of his narrative, MacIntyre includes some interesting photos, extensive endnotes and a bibliography to substantiate his work. It is a book that will interest those who are curious to know more about the man eventually knighted by the crown for the work he did in Ireland, or those interested in this historical period in British and Irish history and the bloody and violent Irish fight for their independence.
Winston Churchill had met General Hugh Tudor while both served in the army in India. The two enjoyed distinguished military careers and when Churchill became Secretary of State for War in Lloyd George’s cabinet, he asked Tudor to take the post of chief of police in Dublin. His mission would be to champion the new British strategy which would include a civilian police force with an unconventional paramilitary mandate, one that eventually became known as the Black and Tans. Tudor accepted the post and began an experience that would profoundly affect his life. As commander of the police, he was responsible for a violent company of men who led a campaign of terror against the rebel terrorists in the IRA (The Irish Republican Army). His men adopted the same tactics as the rebels, encouraged to ignore the rules and follow their most violent instincts when engaging the enemy. Their goal, simply stated, was to stamp out terrorism by killing the terrorists. Both sides carried out clandestine night patrols and violent ambushes. They bombed businesses, burned homes, brutally beat suspects and carried out shot gun executions, often without evidence to support a crime. Those who sympathized with the rebels were also targeted. Their houses were burned down, their barns and animals were destroyed and the pubs and businesses they frequented were vandalized and looted. These tactics were carried out by men who were often drunk as they wrecked murder and mayhem in the streets, dark alleys, abandoned fields and behind shops and hedges. Anyone suspected of militant opposition to British rule, including the clergy and politicians, were at risk of becoming a target. Innocent men, woman and children were often caught in the crossfire and lost their lives to the violence.
Tudor had not gone to Ireland with a violent game plan in mind but had been persuaded by the senior members of the British cabinet that brutal tactics by the enemy justified brutal countermeasures by the government. However, when Tudor’s friends became the rebel’s victims, he grew more embittered toward them and even less inclined to stop the bloodshed. As the violence escalated, Tudor’s colleagues became uncomfortable, dismayed by his willingness to oversee actions that should have been repugnant to any military officer. But there is little evidence Tudor hesitated in doing what he believed was his assigned duty. Some questioned whether Tudor had been corrupted by his job or was dutifully following corrupt instructions from his political superiors. He was a traditional man, one who believed in loyalty to the British Empire and to his friend Winston Churchill, and both reassured him he was doing a good job. It raises the question of whether Churchill was really Tudor’s trusted friend or if he and the prime minister were using him to carry out a politically unpalatable dirty war.
In the past Tudor had kept a diary of his experiences during the Boer War and while on the Western Front, but left no record of his time in Ireland so we have no knowledge of his thoughts about accepting a position for which he had no experience. He had already done his duty for Britain, survived thirty-five years of active service in the British army and enjoyed a distinguished military career. Why did he not settle down with his pension and enjoy his retirement with his family? Whatever his thoughts, the twenty-three months he spent in Dublin redefined his life, his career and perhaps even his personality.
MacIntyre spent four years researching the life of the man he was trying to understand, a man who had never been to Ireland and was in fact indifferent to the long Irish fight for self-determination. He writes in shocking detail about the brutality and violence Tudor authorized as the man responsible for the Black and Tans and those details make for difficult reading. He describes a man driven to act against his own moral standards and questions how that happened. Was he driven by the assumed superiority of many Brits at the time? Or was it the belief he shared with Churchill that Ireland’s long campaign for self-determination would never lose its momentum unless it was decisively demolished?
In later life, after an assignment in Palestine, Tudor withdrew from his family, enjoyed few friends and spent his last days in Newfoundland, a place he did not know but where he felt safe from the remaining roaming Irish rebels. There were still some out there, men with guns, grudges and hate in their hearts who were determined to continue enacting revenge for the past. Tudor died in his adopted home in 1965 in relative obscurity, his grave now difficult to locate.
This is an interesting account of how a man may be brought to the point of acting against his own principles if he believes he is serving his country, only to bring his life to a lonely end. MacIntyre calls this volume historical journalism, a book he was led to write by his curiosity about Sir Hugh Tudor and intrigued by two questions: the nature of the bond between Tudor and Churchill and why Tudor chose to spend a good part of his remaining life in Newfoundland, far from family and friends.
MacIntyre is a meticulous researcher and the results allow him to cite many of the atrocities carried out during the Irish conflict. They are difficult to read and the mindless slaughter leads readers to wonder as MacIntyre does, how any man could have sanctioned such horrific deeds. In fact, although readers know much about the Irish conflict from the trove of data in histories, letters and the diaries of others, we still know little about Hugh Tudor, the man MacIntyre has tried to understand.
At the end of his narrative, MacIntyre includes some interesting photos, extensive endnotes and a bibliography to substantiate his work. It is a book that will interest those who are curious to know more about the man eventually knighted by the crown for the work he did in Ireland, or those interested in this historical period in British and Irish history and the bloody and violent Irish fight for their independence.
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August 27, 2025My conversation with MacIntyre discussing the book here:
https://umfm.com/programming/broadcas...
https://umfm.com/programming/broadcas...
September 2, 2025
"An Accidental Villain" is my introduction to Ireland's pursuit of independence and peace. While I've read many Irish novels covering every era this my first non-fiction. No doubt there are thousands of accounts of the Easter Uprising, the War of Independence, Bloody Sunday, Civil War and the many times of trouble. But this was as good a starting point as I could hope for; well written, page turning pace and seemingly very well researched.
Major Gen Sir Hugh Tudor was a widely respected WWI commander honored for both bravery and intelligent battlefield tactics. He was a fluent Arabic speaker with experience in Egypt and he was a close friend of Winston Churchill. Just months after the war ended Churchill as Secretary of War and Prime Minister Lloyd George requested that Tudor head up the police force for Ireland and take on the role of suppressing nascent violent opposition to British rule. MacIntyre explains that the English strategy for controlling Ireland was to call it a police action rather than a war. Hence Tudor's role would be to expand and weaponize the police as a means to oppose the Sein Fein political party and their military arm; the IRA. The book goes through the ugly violent tit for tat assassinations, murders, reprisals, arrests and near daily skirmishes in village after village. More importantly it makes sense of it by explaining the progression of events and the main parties involved on both sides. I regularly dug up Wikipedia or other explanations as these events are both shocking and attention grabbing.
Ultimately through showing the dirty tactics on both sides MacIntyre makes a good case that Tudor was the one ultimately responsible for the worst tactics of the hated "Black and Tans" - a largely rogue element of British soldiers empowered to avenge almost any act of Irish opposition and the Auxiliaries - Irish citizens hired to arrest or fight and support the normal police force. These groups perhaps acted no different than the IRA but coming from a foreign occupier their mere presence was already a source anger, fear and resentment. And there were many many executions rather than arrests along with home and village destruction.
Like Vietnam many years later Tudor and others would explain that there was progress and a point to their mayhem. Ultimately media reports in England, the US and elsewhere lead to popular anger towards Lloyd George and demands of a settlement of some kind which lead to the partition where Northern Ireland remains part of the United Kingdom and the remainder is now the Republic of Ireland.
The book's value is using the role of Tudor to lead us through how events changed so dramatically from where England had no intention of allowing an independent Ireland to reaching the very opposite conclusion 2 years later. He introduces all the main players; the English politicians, the English appointed military head in Ireland McCready, the IRA and Sein Fein opposition including Michael Collins and Eamon de Velara and of course Churchill.
Tudor wrote no diaries of his time in Ireland and he lived for many years in St John, Newfoundland after his military career ended. He was responsible for much violence and death in Ireland. There are hints that he felt targeted for assassination and lead a very quiet life until his passing in 1965.
I liked the book quite a bit. The book is similar to those written by Simon Winchester, Richard Shorto, Gilles Milton and others that have found very interesting faded pieces of history that actually carried serious impact on the world. Well worth reading.
Major Gen Sir Hugh Tudor was a widely respected WWI commander honored for both bravery and intelligent battlefield tactics. He was a fluent Arabic speaker with experience in Egypt and he was a close friend of Winston Churchill. Just months after the war ended Churchill as Secretary of War and Prime Minister Lloyd George requested that Tudor head up the police force for Ireland and take on the role of suppressing nascent violent opposition to British rule. MacIntyre explains that the English strategy for controlling Ireland was to call it a police action rather than a war. Hence Tudor's role would be to expand and weaponize the police as a means to oppose the Sein Fein political party and their military arm; the IRA. The book goes through the ugly violent tit for tat assassinations, murders, reprisals, arrests and near daily skirmishes in village after village. More importantly it makes sense of it by explaining the progression of events and the main parties involved on both sides. I regularly dug up Wikipedia or other explanations as these events are both shocking and attention grabbing.
Ultimately through showing the dirty tactics on both sides MacIntyre makes a good case that Tudor was the one ultimately responsible for the worst tactics of the hated "Black and Tans" - a largely rogue element of British soldiers empowered to avenge almost any act of Irish opposition and the Auxiliaries - Irish citizens hired to arrest or fight and support the normal police force. These groups perhaps acted no different than the IRA but coming from a foreign occupier their mere presence was already a source anger, fear and resentment. And there were many many executions rather than arrests along with home and village destruction.
Like Vietnam many years later Tudor and others would explain that there was progress and a point to their mayhem. Ultimately media reports in England, the US and elsewhere lead to popular anger towards Lloyd George and demands of a settlement of some kind which lead to the partition where Northern Ireland remains part of the United Kingdom and the remainder is now the Republic of Ireland.
The book's value is using the role of Tudor to lead us through how events changed so dramatically from where England had no intention of allowing an independent Ireland to reaching the very opposite conclusion 2 years later. He introduces all the main players; the English politicians, the English appointed military head in Ireland McCready, the IRA and Sein Fein opposition including Michael Collins and Eamon de Velara and of course Churchill.
Tudor wrote no diaries of his time in Ireland and he lived for many years in St John, Newfoundland after his military career ended. He was responsible for much violence and death in Ireland. There are hints that he felt targeted for assassination and lead a very quiet life until his passing in 1965.
I liked the book quite a bit. The book is similar to those written by Simon Winchester, Richard Shorto, Gilles Milton and others that have found very interesting faded pieces of history that actually carried serious impact on the world. Well worth reading.
October 14, 2025
I hate to give a middling two stars to a) a book written by Linden MacIntyre, and b) a book with such an interesting sub-subject matter. The problem is as another reviewer mentioned: there ain't much to go on here.
I also don't understand why MacIntyre thought General H. Hugh Tudor was worthy of a biography. Tudor is nothing but an ignorant, bigoted little man who is so far up his own arse he is incapable of compromise (or simply unwilling). We learn Tudor is primarily responsible for some of the worst atrocities during the Irish War of Independence. Despite being cautioned, warned and outright ordered, he insisted on a path of violent destruction and refused to control the Black and Tans, which he commanded.
Tudor is also colourless, one-note, and refused to discuss - ever - his role in Ireland. That means we have no written or oral record of his time there, which is the focus of this book. Which leaves MacIntyre with much conjecture and little fact. Lots of "he could have" and "he must have" and "what was on his mind?" Who knows? Who cares? This biography is a waste of MacIntyre's talent. He should have simply written about the Black and Tans and Sinn Fein and called it a day - that was the interesting sub-subject matter.
I also don't understand why MacIntyre thought General H. Hugh Tudor was worthy of a biography. Tudor is nothing but an ignorant, bigoted little man who is so far up his own arse he is incapable of compromise (or simply unwilling). We learn Tudor is primarily responsible for some of the worst atrocities during the Irish War of Independence. Despite being cautioned, warned and outright ordered, he insisted on a path of violent destruction and refused to control the Black and Tans, which he commanded.
Tudor is also colourless, one-note, and refused to discuss - ever - his role in Ireland. That means we have no written or oral record of his time there, which is the focus of this book. Which leaves MacIntyre with much conjecture and little fact. Lots of "he could have" and "he must have" and "what was on his mind?" Who knows? Who cares? This biography is a waste of MacIntyre's talent. He should have simply written about the Black and Tans and Sinn Fein and called it a day - that was the interesting sub-subject matter.
January 6, 2026
An Accidental Villain is obviously a labour of love for its highly acclaimed author. Linden MacIntyre still has the journalistic skill for spotting a great story - Sir Hugh Tudor is definitely an intriguing character who warrants attention. That being said, I found the book a struggle to get through. The main section that deals with Tudor’s time in Ireland is extensive. The number of murders recounted becomes a litany of sort, and you almost get immune to hearing of one after another. It’s here I feel the story fell off the rails - I even forgot Tudor was the main focus of the book as we receive mere crumbs of his actual life. Therein lies the problem - how to write an engaging account of someone so private that he left little to go on. Perhaps a fictionalized story based on his life may have been a more engaging way to present him. All in all, I’m glad I read the book. I definitely learned much regarding that period of time in Ireland, and it also led me to reflect on the post war status of WWI veterans ( my grandfather included) and how each coped in their own way with the fallout. Tudor was a pragmatist to the end.
October 10, 2025
Non-fiction - an interesting an little known story about a British WWI general. His name is Henry Tudor. He is friends with Churchill. After the Great War he is assigned the task of bringing the IRA under control. His Black and Tans are known for extrajudicial killings, torturing suspects and terrorizing civilians. However, the IRA response is no less violent. The chapter on Bloody Sunday is sad and terrifying. Tudor was not a diarist so all of the information on him is second hand. It does leave large gaps in his story. Why did he want to divorce his wife? Did he know what his officers were doing? And did the IRA send a hit team to Newfoundland to take him out?
Canadian references - Tudor moves to Newfoundland after he loses his position in Ireland; he commands a Newfoundland regiment in WWI.
Pharmacy references - a Victoria Cross winner from Newfoundland becomes a pharmacist when he returns to civilian life.
Canadian references - Tudor moves to Newfoundland after he loses his position in Ireland; he commands a Newfoundland regiment in WWI.
Pharmacy references - a Victoria Cross winner from Newfoundland becomes a pharmacist when he returns to civilian life.
October 15, 2025
A fair-minded biography, that strikes a good line on the discrepancy between popular legend (a prevailing rumours around Newfoundland that a group of men with thick Irish accents turned up on the island in the 1950s, asking about a ‘Hughie Tudor’- like false as the IRA was effectively moribund in the 1950s, and certainly wouldn’t have had the resources for transatlantic travel) and actual fact. It’s an interesting look at an overlooked (understandable considering he was a loser) historical figure.
The most interesting chapter for historians of the Irish revolution is that which deals with a night out between Tudor’s Secretary William Darling and Michael Collins, meeting by chance but drinking together in the Gresham Hotel long into the wee hours; very revelatory regarding Collins’ character, temperament and sensibilities.
The most interesting chapter for historians of the Irish revolution is that which deals with a night out between Tudor’s Secretary William Darling and Michael Collins, meeting by chance but drinking together in the Gresham Hotel long into the wee hours; very revelatory regarding Collins’ character, temperament and sensibilities.
November 25, 2025
3.5*
MacIntyre’s new book visits the life of the controversial Major General Sir Hugh Tudor. Close friend of Winston Churchill, Tudor served in South Africa, India, and World War I before being posted to Ireland to lead the Black and Tans. The British soldiers were brutal as were the police (Royal Irish Constabulary). Following his less than exemplary time in Ireland, Tudor was posted to Palestine with the Black and Tans. When Tudor left the army, he decided to make his home in Newfoundland. He had led the Newfoundland troops late in World War I. The speculation is that his self-imposed exile to Nfld was in fear of retaliation from the Irish.
MacIntyre’s new book visits the life of the controversial Major General Sir Hugh Tudor. Close friend of Winston Churchill, Tudor served in South Africa, India, and World War I before being posted to Ireland to lead the Black and Tans. The British soldiers were brutal as were the police (Royal Irish Constabulary). Following his less than exemplary time in Ireland, Tudor was posted to Palestine with the Black and Tans. When Tudor left the army, he decided to make his home in Newfoundland. He had led the Newfoundland troops late in World War I. The speculation is that his self-imposed exile to Nfld was in fear of retaliation from the Irish.
November 22, 2025
I kept reading this to find out when the part where Tudor was an “accidental” villain would happen, but it never came. To call him an accidental villain would be to imply that this man was blisteringly stupid or to ignore the fact that he tried to pull the same nonsense in Palestine after he finished in Ireland. As the book went on, he just kept getting less redeemable. I’m not sure why he deserved a whole book about his life, especially one that tried to paint what in my mind was clearly a bad person with an objective brush and given how little evidence he left behind.
December 15, 2025
This is an interesting account of a difficult time in Irish history, the period of 1920-25, in particular with the involvement of the Black and Tans. It takes the reader through the career of General Hugh Tudor who Churchill installed in Ireland through his death in Newfoundland in 1965. The story while compelling, does get bogged down in the Irish morass. It is however, worth the time to understand, more clearly a dark period of Irish history.
September 29, 2025
I don't agree with the title. Tudor spent his career upholding the English and became the tutorial "accidental villain" when he did the same in Ireland. Was he more violent in Ireland, the book doesn't really go that deep into Tudor's war time experience.
it is an interesting history of Ireland's independence and covers an area I, as an American, wasn't very familiar.
it is an interesting history of Ireland's independence and covers an area I, as an American, wasn't very familiar.
October 30, 2025
Intriguing and very interesting. Definitely taught me some history of Ireland and Britain during the early 1900s missing from my education. And, as I have family who came from both countries around that time, it provided an interesting reflection for me. The story itself is most intriguing and paints a curious picture of a military career that didn’t end up the way it could have!
August 31, 2025
Enjoyed very informative. Easy to read.
September 16, 2025
I quit P.49, having no interest in Anglo-Irish politics or warfare
September 18, 2025
Read 40 pages. Didn't hold my interest. Quit
December 26, 2025
A fascinating read about a history i was vaguely familiar with.
January 5, 2026
So, interesting, I had this book already and must have had it still on my holds list. It came up again. It did not take me long to recognize it. I do not have a lot of notes on this so I have to remember my thoughts from a month ago......so not as much nitty gritty for me. That is when it became more humanistic to me. I think some will not love this as it does go into strategy and politics. For me, I do not mind as long as it does not dwell too much some of the more mundane parts of the wars that we are reading about.
October 22, 2025
**★★★★★ – A gripping, unflinching portrait of power, loyalty, and moral collapse**
*An Accidental Villain* is a masterclass in narrative history—deeply researched, compellingly written, and morally resonant. Linden MacIntyre resurrects a shadowy figure from Britain’s imperial past and forces us to reckon with the complex, uncomfortable truths of power and conscience in times of war.
Major-General Sir Hugh Tudor, once a decorated war hero, becomes a man consumed by the murky, unofficial violence of Britain's campaign against Irish independence. Through meticulous archival work and vivid storytelling, MacIntyre traces Tudor’s descent from celebrated military strategist to the infamous architect of terror—overseeing the Black and Tans and implicated in atrocities like Bloody Sunday. What’s most striking is not just what Tudor did, but how little he left behind to explain it—no memoirs, no defense, just silence and a self-imposed exile.
MacIntyre doesn’t sensationalize. Instead, he confronts the moral ambiguity head-on, asking not just how Tudor became an agent of brutality, but why. The result is a chilling, humanizing, and often haunting meditation on how good men, shaped by friendship, loyalty, and institutional duty, can lose themselves to history’s darker tides.
This is essential reading for anyone interested in the Irish War of Independence, British imperialism, or the psychology of violence. *An Accidental Villain* is history at its most urgent and eloquent—a story that lingers long after the last.
*An Accidental Villain* is a masterclass in narrative history—deeply researched, compellingly written, and morally resonant. Linden MacIntyre resurrects a shadowy figure from Britain’s imperial past and forces us to reckon with the complex, uncomfortable truths of power and conscience in times of war.
Major-General Sir Hugh Tudor, once a decorated war hero, becomes a man consumed by the murky, unofficial violence of Britain's campaign against Irish independence. Through meticulous archival work and vivid storytelling, MacIntyre traces Tudor’s descent from celebrated military strategist to the infamous architect of terror—overseeing the Black and Tans and implicated in atrocities like Bloody Sunday. What’s most striking is not just what Tudor did, but how little he left behind to explain it—no memoirs, no defense, just silence and a self-imposed exile.
MacIntyre doesn’t sensationalize. Instead, he confronts the moral ambiguity head-on, asking not just how Tudor became an agent of brutality, but why. The result is a chilling, humanizing, and often haunting meditation on how good men, shaped by friendship, loyalty, and institutional duty, can lose themselves to history’s darker tides.
This is essential reading for anyone interested in the Irish War of Independence, British imperialism, or the psychology of violence. *An Accidental Villain* is history at its most urgent and eloquent—a story that lingers long after the last.
November 10, 2025
An insightful journalist and author, MacIntyre is at his best covering controversial topics. His latest book, An Accidental Villain, takes the reader to Ireland in 1920. The Sinn Féin political party and the Irish Republican Army were determined to free the country from British authority. England was determined that wouldn’t happen. Enter Sir Hugh Tudor, a major-general in the recent World War. Europe was just starting to recover from the horrors of trench warfare when the I.R.A. uprising got under Winston Churchill’s skin. As Minister of War, he called his buddy Hugh Tudor to assemble a police force of 10,000 war veterans and knock some sense into the Irish once and for all. Known as the Black and Tans, because of their mismatched uniforms, they were baffled by the I.R.A’s terrorist tactics. Tudor and his men doubled down with ruthless retribution, claiming the Irish were traitors. They started a systematic series of assassinations and ambushes. If an English police officer was killed, Tudor and his men would punish the entire village where it happened by burning homes and looting businesses. The conflict included Bloody Sunday when police opened fire on civilians during a football match.
Hugh Tudor left Great Britain and emigrated to Newfoundland in 1925. What were the circumstances surrounding his plummet from decorated war hero to accidental villain? It’s an engaging tale about a militarized police force gone awry that is strangely similar to current news clips.
Hugh Tudor left Great Britain and emigrated to Newfoundland in 1925. What were the circumstances surrounding his plummet from decorated war hero to accidental villain? It’s an engaging tale about a militarized police force gone awry that is strangely similar to current news clips.
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