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In London, a government removed from the pressure for immediate mobilsation by the power of the Royal Navy, nevertheless rushed to war with what the British historian AJP Taylor termed 'indecent haste'. The political justification presented to the House of Commons, the strategic imperative of preventing a German hegemony in Europe, was used to conceal the Foreign Office's overwhelming need to intervene to continue its appeasement of St Petersburg due to policy miscalculations which had left British imperial interests in Asia vulnerable to Russian aggression.
A series of fictional interviews, conducted with Kaiser Wilhelm II in October 1938 as he lived out his old age in exile, sets out the chronology of events, revealing how Austrian recklessness, German miscalculation, Russian precipitation and French ambition, combined with British policy errors, led Europe to war. The book does not absolved Wilhelm from his share of responsibilty for the events of 1914 but places it in the context of decisions made by others who history has allowed to escape into undeserved obscurity.
Michael Bennett
Michael Bennett (Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Whakaue) is an award-winning screenwriter, director and author. His first book, a non-fiction work telling the true story of New Zealand’s worst miscarriage of justice, In Dark Places, won Best Non-Fiction Book at the 2017 Ngaio Marsh Awards. Michael's second book, Helen and the Go-Go Ninjas, is a time-travel graphic novel co-authored with Ant Sang.
Better the Blood, the first Hana Westerman thriller, was shortlisted for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction/Ockham New Zealand Book Award, as well as for the Audio Book of the Year at the Capital Crime Fingerprint Awards and Best First Mystery Novel at the Barry Awards. It was also longlisted for the CWA John Creasey New Blood Debut Dagger and was a finalist for Best Novel at the 2023 Ngaio Marsh Awards, where it won the award for Best First Novel. Return to Blood, the second novel in the acclaimed series, won the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel in 2025.
Michael's short and feature films have won awards internationally and have screened at numerous festivals, including Cannes, Toronto, Berlin, Locarno, New York, London and Melbourne. Michael is the 2020 recipient of the Te Aupounamu Māori Screen Excellence Award, in recognition of members of the Māori filmmaking community who have made high-level contributions to screen storytelling.
He lives in Auckland, Aotearoa (New Zealand), with his partner Jane, and children Tīhema, Māhina and Matariki.
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