In May 1941, Ian Fleming went to New York and met James Bond.

Or, rather, Fleming met William – Bill – Stephenson. Stephenson worked with the creator of Bond in the dark world of espionage during WWII and may well have been the inspiration for that quintessential dashing British spy who has now been serving Queen and Country for nearly 70 years.

Stephenson was not a career MI6 spy. In fact, he had made a fortune in Canada after WWI and then created his own private intelligence network. One of his most eager consumers of information was Winston Churchill, still a backbench MP seemingly destined for ever greater obscurity if Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s negotiations with Hitler succeeded in keeping Europe at peace. It didn’t of course, and a small part of the reason for Churchill becoming Britain’s new war-time Prime Minister in 1940 was the valuable and unique information on Nazi rearmament supplied to him by Stephenson.

Impressed by freelance spy’s ability and dynamism, when the MI6 station chief left his post in New York Churchill tapped Stephenson for the role – and then greatly expanded it. Stephenson became head of Britsh Security Coordination, BSC, in the Americas, a powerful role overseeing MI6, MI5, and SOE.

A Canadian millionaire was an unusual addition to what had been a small and modest intelligence operation, dabbling in a relatively small-time influence work, propaganda and refugee affairs. Stephenson transformed the British intelligence operation in New York and North America and achieved feats of espionage that would – and perhaps should – have seen impossible.

Using his own money, the new station chief began much more ambitious, dangerous and potentially disasterous operations with an ultra-secret goal – get the United States into WWII as Britain’s ally as soon as possible. Stephenson was entrusted with this crucial task by Churchill himself and it would not be an exaggeration to say that the fate of Britain depended on his success. Stephenson had no scruples about using any means necessary to fulfill his mission.

Reorientating the entire security policy of a foreign nation when the mass of its population was opposed to war was a Herculean task in itself. Stephenson, however, was not unopposed in his difficult endeavours. One of the great strengths and wonderful achievements of Henry Hemmings in Our Man in New York is that he opens our eyes to how very different a world the 1930s were and how our assumptions can be turned on their heads by the reality of that very different time.

For example, the ‘special relationship’ between Britain and the United States did not exist in the 1930s- and indeed Britain was seen in mostly a negative light by most Americans and as an outright enemy by many. Opinion polls in the 1930s regularly found more public support for Germany than Britain, as strange as that might seem to us today.

This is what made Stephenson’s endeavour so intriguing. The wealth and power of the US was evident to Stephenson and Churchill but finding a way to inveigle those resources into supporting the British side would prove a difficult if not impossible task. Not the least of the problems were German agents of influence active in the highest levels of government- as well as undercover spies from the German Embassy – who had the help of many other ordinary Americans sympathetic to the Nazis cause.

It would be a shame to ruin such a marvelous book by giving away any more. Reviews of history books often refer to such works ‘breaking new ground’ and ‘shedding new light’ and this can come to seem a little overused. In this case, though, Henry Hemmings genuinely has done wonders to trace, analyse and synthesise a treasure trove of new material.

The result is a rollicking good read that achieves what is almost impossible – Our Man in New York entices in readers and then regales them with an exciting and significant story of WWII that has almost gone completely untold before now.

Do read it, you won’t be disappointed – it makes the average James Bond plotline seem humdrum in comparison!!!

Our Man in New York is a fascinating insight in to how Great Britain worked to manipulate the American general public in to agreeing that joining Britain in WWII was the right thing to do. The cast involved in generating, implementing and distributing the "Fake News" includes Spies, a President, Hollywood, Business Magnates as well as ordinary people who believed in what they were doing. What was actually done is quite amazing / shocking.

I was given a copy of this book by NetGalley and the Publishers in return for my unbiased review.

A fascinating, well researched and well written book that made me learn about a background of the WWII unknown to me.
It can be read like a novel as it's engrossing and entertaining, fun to read at parts and surely interesting.
It's the first book I read bu this author and won't surely the last.
It was a great read, it's highly recommended!
Many thanks to Quercus Books and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

I really enjoyed Agent M and this is just as good. The story has been revealed by many other reviewers so I won't repeat what they have said.

I loved the amount of reach that the author had obviously conducted and how he draw all the strands together to make a highly readable and historically accurate account of a key moment in the history of WW2.

Exceptionally good and highly recommended.

Having enjoyed Henry Hemmin’s previous book, “Agent M: The Lives and Spies of MI5’s Maxwell Knight,” I was keen to read his latest, about British attempts to bring America into WWII.

‘Our Man in New York,’ was William (Bill) Stephenson, who was sent to the US in June 1940, with instructions from MI6 to ‘organise’ American public opinion. Hemming has personal history with Stephenson, who saved his father, when he was three years old, from drowning and, subsequently, became his Godfather. However, it is Stephenson’s time in New York that interests the reader.

In 1940, when Stephenson headed for the States, Britain stood alone. Public opinion was very much against entering the war, with American hero, Charles Lindbergh, heading the America First, isolationist, camp. However, Stephenson was a man with money and, having put a rather difficult childhood behind him – after being adopted, when his mother could no longer afford to care for him – he took MI6 as his new family. An elite, powerful family, where he felt that he belonged.

With the Blitz, many people in America, respected Britain and felt they could ‘take it,’ but, presumably without American help. Churchill, though, was desperate for America to enter the war and, although Roosevelt was unwilling to declare war without provocation, he was desperate for an excuse to do so.

This, then, is the story of Britain’s attempts to gain the support, and financial help, of America. It involves spying, dirty tricks and fraud. It also involves familiar names, such as Ian Fleming, David Mackenzie Ogilvy (the father of advertising, who sneakily inserted the odd extra question into Gallup polls), and Roald Dahl. With Churchill like a ‘naughty schoolboy,’ who had seen the exam papers before a test, and willing to approve almost any scheme, the spymasters did all they could to sway public opinion and encourage a country to fight for freedom.

At times, this book is very funny. There are moments when the British fake documents which have the Germany High Command almost incandescent with rage, as they are unveiled as factual. Other times, this is poignant and moving. Lindbergh, once an American hero, misjudges his audience completely and the ugly spectre of Anti-Semitism rears its ugly, and all too familiar, head. However, having read this, it is certainly obvious that Stephenson not only saved the life of one small boy, but helped save freedom in Europe. He, and his team, were tireless in their efforts to bring America on side and to make them appreciate that, not only Britain, but Russia, was worth fighting for. A fascinating, well written and inspiring book.

In 1940 and 1941, British spies resorted to forgery, fake news and outright lies to sway US opinion in favour of supporting the British against Nazi Germany and bringing the US into the war.
At the beginning of hostilities, opinion polls showed that only 14% of Americans were in favour of war against Germany, but in June 1940 William "Bill" Stephenson arrived in the USA with instructions from the head of MI6 to "organise" American public opinion.
Americans were divided into two camps - the isolationists and the interventionists. The former were opposed to American involvement in a war in Europe.
The legendary aviator, Charles Lindbergh and several US Senators, supported America First, a small group which grew to have 800,000 members dedicated to preventing America going to war.
Using recently declassified files and private papers, including those of his own grandparents, author Henry Hemming details how Bill Stephenson - "Our Man In New York" - helped change American attitudes. Stephenson, a man with a chequered past, started out with only a handful of staff in an organisation called the British Security Coordination (BSC). He began by establishing contact with J Edgar Hoover, the head of the FBI and went on to influence William "Wild Bill" Donovan - who would become Coordinator of Information (COI), in charge of an intelligence and propaganda agency of the United States Government. Before too long, Britain was directing the work of Donovan and his organisation which, to all intents and purposes, was "an Anglo-American enterprise".
The extent of this influence was probably illegal. One person who realised what was happening was a US State Department official, Adolf Berle. He compiled a dossier on Stephenson and the BSC, using it at a meeting with President Roosevelt in September 1941. Roosevelt's reaction to Berle's complaints was "curiously flat" and it was only towards the end of their meeting that he told Berle "to make the British Intelligence calm down here". However, Roosevelt's next move was to prioritise aid to Russia and in this he was guided by Bill Donovan with Bill Stephenson pulling the strings. For example, Stephenson had the Polish Government In Exile, then based in London, to lie about Russia's religious persecution in their country and soon afterwards, planes, tanks and war materials were being sent to the Soviet Union on a monthly basis.
The British had already planted scores of fake news stories in the US media and throughout the world, using bribery as well as employing sympathetic journalists. They encouraged American interventionist groups to disrupt America First rallies and provoke confrontation with the isolationists. Stephenson also enabled the rigging of public opinion polls, including those of the much respected Gallup organisation. The BSC had a forgery section which faked documents “revealing” plans for a Nazi coup in Bolivia and Germany's plans for the whole of Latin America in the event of war. One of those who worked on forged documents was the world famous entertainer, Eric Maschwitz, who wrote "A Nightingale Sang In Berkely Square". Before he became a famous author, Roald Dahl also worked for the BSC. However, the author makes clear that, although this was a British spying operation, it was one in which large parts of the US administration participated, including the President of the United States. Indeed, it could be argued that Roosevelt's knowledge of Stephenson and Donovan's efforts could have led to his impeachment. The world famous author Ian Fleming, who was also involved in intelligence work during World War II, once wrote: “James Bond is a highly romanticised version of a true story. The real thing is . . . William Stephenson.”
Meanwhile, Charles Lindbergh had some sort of paranoid breakdown and in a speech at an America First rally, he identified the forces pulling America into the war as the British, the Roosevelt administration, and American Jews. Lindbergh went on to suggest that American Jews should be opposed to intervention as they would be "among the first to feel its consequences". He added: "Their greatest danger to this country lies in their large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio, and our government." As a result of his speech, Lindbergh and America First were heavily criticised in the American media and their numbers began to decline.
In the final months of 1941, US public opinion was firmly on the side of a war against Nazi Germany and 4 days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, Hitler declared war on the United States.
Hemming ends the book with a warning from history, pointing to the current US president's use of the "America First" slogan and his isolationist policies along with the involvement of Putin's Russia in trying to influence the outcome of the US presidential election. William Donovan, who became the chief of the Office of Strategic Service (OSS) has called the British Security Coordination (BSC) "the greatest integrated secret intelligence and operations organization that has ever existed anywhere" - a fitting tribute to Bill Stephenson and his staff.
My thanks to the publisher Quercus and NetGalley for a copy of this book in return for an unbiased review.