Interviewing Hitler: How George Ward Price Became the World's Most Famous Journalist

by Richard Evans

George Ward Price rose to prominence as the leading journalist in the 1930s, thanks to a string of world exclusives on Nazi Germany. He spent an hour alone with Hitler and Göring after the remilitarisation of the Rhineland, stood next to Hitler as he addressed a crowd on the night of the invasion of Austria, and joined him for afternoon tea at the Eagle's Nest following his historic first meeting with Neville Chamberlain.

These stories made Ward Price world famous, but he often seemed uncomfortable in the glare of the spotlight, hiding his true self behind a carefully cultivated veneer of suave and easy-going charm. It meant that he left unanswered what drove his all-consuming ambition? Was his success down to journalist brilliance, or was there something more sinister that lay behind it? And were there any lengths to which he would not go to make sure that, as one of his colleagues put it, he 'always got his story'?

Interviewing Hitler is the first book to explore the real Ward Price and the truth behind his reporting on the Nazis. It is a journey that takes us through a series of century-shaping events and deep into the dark heart of British journalism. As well as being one of the most controversial figures in newspaper history, Ward Price's career serves as a warning for today's world of disinformation and fake news.

281 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 28, 2025

Reviews

[Andrew Wood · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this fascinating insight into the British journalist who was closest to Hitler, Richard Evans is a steady hand at the tiller, showing us Ward Price from different angles - the swashbuckling journalist just doing his job, the intermediary in critical communications, the unknowable man, the Nazi sympathiser. The book is at its most unsettling when, through Ward Price’s eyes, we see Hitler and the other top Nazis humanised in quiet moments - joking with each other in a lift, having cups of tea. To us they are distant and evil incarnate, entirely different from us, yet here we see glimpses of them as people.

[ids · Rating 4 out of 5]

Evans, masterfully, starts Interviewing Hitler by lavishing Price with praise - showing the reader his accomplishments and how others held him in high esteem. If something impactful happened during the first part of the 1900s - Ward Price was there. But then, Evans, turns the table and shows the reader Price’s own words - which are damming. They show an agenda and a bias - so clear, that I was shocked that Price was allowed to keep reporting and not banished to some dusty archive room.

Evans is honest, and nuanced, admitting that he too wanted to exonerate Price, giving this journalist who was at one point seen as the epitome of English reporting, his dues. However, it could not be done.

This book is layered, and grapples with some of the questions that society still faces. Can the media be objective? How do we hold those in power accountable when journalism itself is shaped by bias? Are we even fully aware of these biases - and of how much is hidden from us as ordinary citizens?