I'm John Batchel with Charles Spicer.

The book is Coffee with Hitler, the untold story of the amateur spies who tried to civilize the Nazis.

The catastrophes ahead, it is May of 1937, the coronation, George the 6th.

The embassy, the German embassy in London, is three buildings put together

by the Ribbon Trops. And we need to introduce a driving force in Ribbon Trops' attempt

to win the affection of the British public and then eventually to put the two states together.

And the formula being, Germany will take care of the continent and England can pay attention to its empire on the seas.

However, the Ribbentropes are guided by Annalise Ribbentrop.

And I tell Charles we must attend to Annalise because she outlived Ribbentrop, who was hanged in

1945, I believe.

47.

47, thank you.

And she wrote afterwards about her memories of living in London, where she was offended

by the English habit of making fun of newcomers or the new

boys. Annalise, she was well to do when she married Joachim van Ruben-Tropus. I remember her father was

a champagne maker. Is that right, Charles? Yes, sect, which is the German version of champagne,

the Henkel family, and the Henkel brand is still,

I believe, the leading brand of sparkling German wine. And her ambitions were to dominate British

society. She wanted her son to Eden, her daughter privately schooled or to a private school

that is equal to Eden.

And she wanted people to come and pay obeisance to the new Germany.

There's a party held at the embassy to inaugurate during this period the new ambassador,

...