During World War II, the United States was the target of what Gore Vidal has called "the largest, most intricate and finally most successful conspiracy directed at it in the twentieth century" - Great Britain's "vast conspiracy to manoeuvre an essentially isolationist country into the war." InBeware the British SerpentRobert Calder examines British writers' involvement in this propaganda campaign, including lecturing and touring in the United States, broadcasting on American radio, writing screenplays for films such asMrs. MiniverandThis Above All, and writing articles and books for publication in America. Using newly uncovered archival material, Calder offers provocative new insights into the war work of more than forty prominent British authors, focusing particularly on Somerset Maugham, Noel Coward, H.G. Wells, Vera Brittain, and J.B. Priestley.

He provides a comprehensive analysis of the suspicions beneath the wartime Anglo-American alliance and describes the tensions that arose between the British Ministry of Information and the Foreign Office over the nature and direction of the propaganda campaign in the United States.Calder demonstrates that Britain's well-organized propaganda campaign in the United States to persuade it to enter World War I had left isolationist and Anglophobic Americans highly suspicious of anything that hinted of propaganda. Any effort to influence public opinion had therefore to be carefully and subtly undertaken, and the British Government soon realised that well-known authors - employed officially or semi-officially - were ideal for the task. Respected for their pens, they were especially suited to reminding Americans of their strongest links with Britain - a common language and a shared cultural heritage of Shakespeare, Dickens, Austen, Hardy, Thackeray, and others. As well, their profession had often led them to tour, speak, write, and live in America, and, because they could live on their royalties and speaking fees, they were not on the payroll of the British government and thus could not be identified as paid foreign agents.