Footnotes

• "PERHAPS YOU MAY LIKE TO TAKE REFUGE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY": CHURCHILL PRESENTS HIS LIFE OF MARLBOROUGH TO CHAMBERLAIN IN THE MONTH BEFORE THE MUNICH AGREEMENT. All four volumes bear autograph inscriptions by Churchill made as each volume appeared and dated respectively October 1933 (the year that Hitler came to power and month that he withdrew Germany from the League of Nations and World Disarmament Conference); 21 October 1934 (Trafalgar Day, with Hindenburg dead, Hitler was now head of state and supreme commander); October 1936 (the month that the Axis was declared between Italy and Germany); and August 1938 – the official publication date being 2 September – with Churchill writing under his presentation inscription, as noted: "Perhaps you may like to take refuge in the eighteenth century" – a postscript both of sardonic humour and ringing poignancy, written as the world stood on the edge of sinking 'into the abyss of a new Dark Age' and Chamberlain desperately sought to make peace with Hitler, taking his first aeroplane flight on 15 September to meet Hitler at Berchtesgaden, and signing the Munich Agreement at the end of the month.
  
  Provenance: From the private collection of Mrs Francis Neville Chamberlain, daughter-in-law of the Rt Hon. Neville Chamberlain MP.

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Category: Books / Books, Maps and Manuscripts

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