Blackshirt : Sir Oswald Mosley and British Fascism

Hated and adored, trusted and feared, respected and scorned - public opinion has never been indifferent to Mosley. A brilliant politician, he turned his back on conventional party politics to found, in 1932, the British Union of Fascists.
Over the intervening years, many have worked hard to guard Mosley's reputation, but Blackshirt casts new light on the man. The author reveals the true nature of his relationship with the Nazis, the Nazi funding of his movement and his desperate attempts - aided by his wife Diana and her sister, Unity Mitford - to support Hitler's regime.
The author challenges the prevailing view of Mosley's descent into anti-Semitism and shows that the campaign against the Jews was not a response to the failure of his movement but was at the core of the Fascist project - a pre-planned assault which drew the admiration of the Nazis.
Was Mosley a potential traitor? Secret files suggest he was prepared to countenance a coup d'etat in order to fulfil his dream of a Fascist state. Hitler never gave up hope of using Mosley in the event of an invasion of Britain as the country's nominal leader.
With ground-breaking research and extensive use of archive material, Blackshirt uncovers a bizarre set of characters and behind-the-scenes friends and colleagues who supported Mosley - crooks, swindlers, political and royal figures, secret agents, Nazi spies, lovers and 'crackpots'.