Duff Cooper

William Maryngton has one dream in life: to fight for his country, as his father did. Yet, by the time Armistice is reached in 1918, he is too young to fulfil his greatest wish. As time passes, Willie finds himself increasingly out of sync with the evolving nature of warfare and civilian life. Yet, when conflict reignites between Germany and England, he is selected for a secret mission that could determine the outcome of the Second World War.Inspired by the true events of the 1943 mission codenamed “Operation Mincemeat”, and based on classified information from Churchill's war cabinet, Operation Heartbreak was suppressed by the British government until 1950. It is the only novel that Duff Cooper ever wrote, and remains a timeless exploration of unfulfilled ambition and personal sacrifice, offering a deeply moving portrayal of a man caught between his aspirations and the inexorable march of history.

A perfectly told tale of defeat and glory--and a paean to gallantry in the face of the absurd--inspired by a real-life secret mission during World War II. Orphaned in the first months of World War One, when his father is killed in action, Willie Maryington dreams only of joining the same cavalry regiment and going to the front. The Armistice dashes seventeen-year-old Willie's plans, but not his dreams of glory, and he makes the regiment the center of his adult existence. Yet, as the years go by, Willie falls increasingly out of step, not only with civilian life, but with the modern military, where horse charges are a thing of the past, and where a gulf yawns between those who saw action and those who did not. When hostilities peak out again between Germany and England, Willie has become a relic. No one could guess that he will be chosen for a mission whose outcome might well decide the course of the Second World War. Inspired by a real-life triumph of pitish counterintelligence (codenamed "Operation Mincemeat"), and based on classified sources, Operation Heartpeak was suppressed by the pitish government until 1950. A work of "jewel-like pevity and intensity" (New York Herald Tribune), it is a study in nostalgia and bewildered idealism to place beside the novels of Joseph Roth and Ford Madox Ford.

Duff Cooper's classic biography charts the remarkable progress of Talleyrand; a silver-tongued master diplomat, infamous turncoat, peacekeeper and libertine. Talleyrand held high office in five successive regimes from France's Ancient Regime, into the Revolution of 1789, Robespierre's Terror, Napoleon's epic wars, and on through restored kings to more revolution. Duff Cooper brings Talleyrand vividly to life and paints an exhilarating picture of this tumultuous period in European history

The greatest deception of the Second World War – and possibly in the whole of military history – took place in April 1943 when a body was found floating in the sea off the Spanish coast. The documents found on him would eventually find their way to Hitler’s desk and send German troops hurtling in the wrong direction. The dead man convinced the Axis powers that the Allies were about to attack Greece and not the real target, Sicily. The course of the war was changed. In this volume is a story within the original extraordinary story. Duff Cooper’s only fictional work, Operation Heartbreak, was based upon the emotionally charged decision to use an anonymous corpse to weave the web of deceit. The British authorities tried to suppress the book because it would show the Spanish in a bad light, with Franco now in power. A change of heart followed and Ewen Montagu was encouraged to tell the whole story. Anyone who read Ben Macintyre’s best-selling Operation Mincemeat will have to read this double volume to understand the full story.

In the early hours of 30 April 1943, a corpse, wearing the uniform of an officer in the Royal Marines, was slipped into the waters off the south-west coast of Spain. With it was a briefcase, in which were papers detailing an imminent Allied invasion of Greece. As the British had anticipated, the supposedly neutral government of Fascist Spain turned the papers over to the Nazi High Command, who swallowed the story whole. It was perhaps the most decisive bluff of all time, for the Allies had no such plan: the purpose of ‘Operation Mincemeat’ was to blind the German High Command to their true objective – an attack on Southern Europe through Sicily.Though officially shrouded in secrecy, the operation soon became legendary (in part owing to Churchill’s post-war habit of telling the story at dinner). It gave rise to two very different books. In 1950 came Duff Cooper’s poignant novel Operation Heartbreak, a romantic tale, one which the government – right up to PM Clement Attlee – attempted to suppress. Its publication prompted the intelligence services to pressurize the operation’s mastermind, Ewen Montagu, into writing a factual account, The Man Who Never Was. Spellmount are proud to present these two accounts, fictional and factual, of one of the greatest intelligence operations ever undertaken, with an introduction by Duff Cooper’s son, John Julius Norwich.

First published in 1950, 'Operation Heartbreak' is a story of why men go to war, it is also a heart-wrenching love story. The afterword to this Persephone edition is by the military historian Max Arthur.

30.04.1943, a corpse, wearing the uniform of an officer in the Royal Marines, was slipped into the waters off the coast of Spain. With it was a briefcase, with papers detailing an imminent Allied invasion of Greece. As the British had anticipated, the supposedly neutral government of Spain turned the papers over to the Nazi high command.

Unique in his own age and a phenomenon in any, Charles-Maurice, Prince de Talleyrand, was a statesman of outstanding ability and extraordinary contradictions. He was a world-class rogue who held high office in five successive regimes. A well-known opportunist and a notorious bribe taker, Talleyrand's gifts to France arguably outvalued the vast personal fortune he amassed in her service. Once a supporter of the Revolution, after the fall of the monarchy, he fled to England and then to the United States. Talleyrand returned to France two years later and served under Napoleon, and represented France at the Congress of Vienna. Duff Cooper's classic biography contains all the vigor, elegance, and intellect of its remarkable subject.