Lords and Masters is a work of fiction, but with mastery and style
Macdonell uses his undoubted journalistic skill to unmask much that
was unpleasant in the West End Society circles of the early 1930s.
He exposes the hypocrisy of the monied class and with biting satire
weaves a tale of intrigue, turning it into a thriller. His
character depiction of the unscrupulous war-profiteer Sir Montagu
Anderton-Mawle is a masterpiece and his ability to so ably define
all that is wrong in the world - as relevant today as it was in the
1930s - reveals a genius in the art of narrative composition.
Although written in 1936, Macdonell was early in seeing that war
was becoming inevitable and in Lords and Masters he foresaw with
frightening prescience how events would unfold. He was correct in
foreseeing the attack on Singapore, but was happily wrong in regard
to Japanese attacks on San Francisco and Montreal. The book is
built around the character of James Hanson, a steel millionaire,
and the cynical manoeuvrings of those who would seek to profiteer
out of human misery. James' youngest daughter, Veronica, is a
Nazi-lover, presumably modelled on Unity Mitford. "Veronica, dear,"
said Mrs. Hanson admiringly, "aren't you being a little
impertinent?" "No, seriously, Daddy, that atrocity stuff is all
rot. Hitler wouldn't allow it for a moment. He isn't that sort of
man. A few Jews have been beaten up perhaps, but that's nothing.
Veronica, who heartily despised the physical appearance of any male
under about six-foot-three, was not so narrow-minded as to despise
male intelligence simply because it was encased in a relatively
dwarfish body. After all, no one could call the Fuehrer
particularly handsome, and yet what a mammoth intellect he had got!
Dr. Goebbels was positively ugly, but look how he scattered the
non-Aryans with his inner fires of patriotism and genius! Happily
for Macdonell, England was not invaded in 1940, otherwise he might
have been on the list of those to be rounded up.
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