Searching for Lord Haw-Haw is an authoritative account of the political lives of William Joyce. He became notorious as a fascist, an anti-Semite and then as a Second World War traitor when, assuming the persona of Lord Haw-Haw, he acted as a radio propagandist for the Nazis. It is an endlessly compelling story of simmering hope, intense frustration, renewed anticipation and ultimately catastrophic failure. This fully-referenced work is the first attempt to place Joyce at the centre of the turbulent, traumatic and influential events through which he lived. It challenges existing biographies, which have reflected not only Joyce’s frequent calculated deceptions but also the suspect claims advanced by his family, friends and apologists. By exploring his rampant, increasingly influential narcissism it also offers a pioneering analysis of Joyce’s personality and exposes its dangerous, destructive consequences. "What a saga my life would make!" Joyce wrote from prison just before his execution. Few would disagree with him.

A rounded portrait of William Joyce, better known as Lord Haw-Haw. It follows his life from Irish peasant to a broadcaster for the Third Reich and covers his trial and execution.

Story of William Joyce, the man who broadcast to England for the Nazis during the war and whose American citizenship was one of the chief legal problems at his trial for treason.

Lord Haw Haw: The English Voice of Nazi Germany tells the story of William Joyce from a new angle: through the eyes of the British intelligence agents who pursued him from his teenage dalliance with fascism in the 1920s to his execution in 1946. The resulting files - and those on Joyce's wife Margaret, known as Lady Haw Haw - were kept secret for many years, but in 2000 were released to the UK National Archives. It is from these unique sources that this account of Joyce's life and personality is constructed. Featured documents range from broadcast transcripts to statements and correspondence from Joyce's family, friends and colleagues; from Joyce's official documents to his personal journal in the desperate days before his capture in May 1945. Along the way, many enduring questions about Lord Haw Haw are considered: . Why a man described as a nonentity was a threat to the British establishment. . How he captured the public's imagination to become universally loathed. . Why the authorities prosecuted when the documents published here prove they were aware of Joyce's American citizenship. . The circumstances that led to Joyce's execution when prosecution of his wife was waived on compassionate grounds."