Swords Reluctant: Max Pemberton, Max Waechter and the European Unity League
A talk by Professor Ulrich Tiedau, University College London

Tuesday 24 May 2022

The European Unity League was created by Richmond resident Sir Max Waechter, who spent years touring Europe trying to bring the organisation to life. This talk focused on Sir Max Pemberton’s 1912 novel War and the Woman, also known as Swords Reluctant – a little known aspect of the League’s publicity campaign,  and explored Pemberton’s semi-fictitious account of the League, what it can reveal about its significance, and assess the novel as an artefact in its own right.