S8 Ep274: THE LEGACY OF THE AMATEUR SPIES Colleague Charles Spicer. Graham Christie and Philip Conwell-Evans compiled a rare book titled None So Blind, printing only 100 copies to document their warnings to the British government about the Nazi threat. Their effor

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John Batchelor

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🗓️ 1 January 2026

⏱️ 8 minutes

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Summary

THE LEGACY OF THE AMATEUR SPIES Colleague Charles Spicer. Graham Christie and Philip Conwell-Evanscompiled a rare book titled None So Blind, printing only 100 copies to document their warnings to the Britishgovernment about the Nazi threat. Their efforts went largely unrecognized until historian Martin Gilbert began to correct the record, moving beyond the simplistic "Guilty Men" narrative to acknowledge that appeasement was a widely supported strategy at the time. The protagonists met modest ends: Ernest Tennant's memoir was overlooked, Conwell-Evans lived quietly in Notting Hill, and the heroic Christie died by suicide in his nineties, leaving behind only a small plaque in St. Paul's Cathedral. The Travelers Club remains one of the few places where their story—and the history of these attempts to civilize the Nazis—is remembered. NUMBER 16
1945-46 GORING AT NUREMBERG

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm John Batchel with Charles Spicer, the author of Coffee with Hitler, the untold story of so many untold stories, but now we become bookish men.
0:15.1	Because there is a book. Only 100 copies were told were printed called None So Blind.
0:19.9	It was a compilation of notes made by
0:22.5	Graham Christie and with his friend Conwell Evans. They put together this book, printed
0:27.6	100 copies, distributed them carefully to major libraries that were of interest to them.
0:33.4	And yet, it didn't get into general circulation until, well, it never did. And part of the mystery
0:41.0	is why not? In it, they tell the story of what we've been talking about, all these efforts to
0:47.7	connect Berlin and London, to find a way besides total war. Charles, you tell me that it is possible to find copies of
0:56.2	NUNSO Blind, though there are 100 copies. You've been successful at it. What in the book,
1:00.7	what in the book is critical to understand today? All these efforts that were being made to
1:06.6	warn the British government about the dangers of Hitler's regime,
1:13.9	its direction of travel, as well as all the detail that you've picked up, the chronology.
1:19.2	The overarching message that Christy was communicating is that the British government needed
1:26.2	to act on this information and act firmly.
1:28.6	And that's not launched the Second World War early, but just mobilized troops, mobilize the fleet,
1:34.6	coordinate better with allies, really stand up to Hitler diplomatically, possibly also economically
1:41.5	with sanctions.
1:43.2	The distinguished biographer of Winston Churchill and of Churchill's letters,
1:48.7	Martin Gilbert, and a colleague of his, Mr. Root, write a book in 1953 called The Appeasers,
1:55.1	in which they follow in much more detail the course of the guilty men book.
2:00.5	And afterwards, it was possible for Mr.
2:02.7	Gilbert, Martin Gilbert, to meet with Conwell Evans, to find Conwell Evans, who had disappeared
	...

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