He was convinced that Britain had entered a phase of decline, had lost her old militant virtues, and in her softness, was lusting after strange idols of pacifism, nationalisation, and everything which would sap self-reliance... His family had at one time all been nominal Liberals, but he among them was a temperamental Tory of the Johnsonian school".

[19] He had frequent night-time anxiety attacks, fearing that his wealth (he was one of the richest men in Britain) would diminish overnight, and he would telephone his corporate officer, Sir George Sutton, to demand information about his precise net worth.

[20] The British historian Raphael Samuel noted that this story was typical of the "ever racist" Rothermere newspapers, which often painted a picture of a demonic Other posing an existential threat to a noble, but failing Britain.

[23] The Zinoviev letter had been written not in Moscow, but rather in Berlin by Vladimir Gregorivitch Orlov, a Russian émigré who specialised in forgeries designed to provoke distrust and fear of the Soviet Union.

Hohenlohe, a beautiful woman known for her charm and greed, had been hired by Hungarian intelligence with orders to win over influencers of British public opinion, which led to the assignment to seduce Rothermere.

[41] In Geneva to attend sessions of the League of Nations, Sir Austen Chamberlain, the Foreign Secretary, told Count István Bethlen, the Hungarian Prime Minister: "[Rothermere] always writes in his paper what is popular, but he is often mistaken in that...

[46] Hohenlohe later described Rothermere as: "erratic, a creature of rapidly changing moods, able to back the idlest of impulses with his millions, open to any suggestion, and perfectly ruthless in carrying out any scheme that might bring him journalistic fame or personal prestige".

[41] Rothermere found himself bombarded with gifts from Hungary such as the 18th century sword of General Hadik, wood-carvings, embroideries, a golden pen from the city fathers of Budapest, and an old flag from the Revolution of 1848.

[57] In a leadership vote in early 1930, Baldwin rejected the demands of the media moguls in a famous speech that accused Rothermere and Beaverbrook of attempting to hijack the Conservative Party: "We are told that unless we make peace with these noblemen, candidates are to be run all over the country.

[58] In a speech at Caxton Hall in June 1930, he read out the letter from Rothermere demanding the right to veto members of a potential Conservative cabinet and commented that: "There is nothing more curious in modern evolution than the effect of an enormous fortune rapidly made and the control of newspapers of your own...

[58] The MacDonald government brought forward a conference known as the Round Table, which for the first time proposed giving the Indians at least some say in the ruling of India, a policy that Baldwin was prepared to support with reservations.

[63] At the Round Table talks, a consensus emerged that the Raj would hence forward control defense, foreign policy, high finance, internal security, and the civil service along with the ultimate supremacy of London over India with other responsibilities such as health, transportion and education to be assigned to Indians.

[67] In a risky move, Baldwin ordered a number of Conservative MPs holding safe Tory seats to resign to cause by-elections with the aim to "expose the real weakness of the press lords".

[68] In July 1930, Neville Chamberlain of the Conservative Research Office met with Rothermere and Beaverbrook in an attempt to broker a compromise, and the demands of the two media moguls were widely seen as causing the failure of the talks.

[58] However, the way that the United Empire party candidate had divided the right-way vote in Islington East to give a normally safe Tory seat to Labour generated a strong reaction within the Conservative ranks.

[58] In the 1930s Rothermere used his newspapers to try to influence British politics, particularly reflecting his strong support of the appeasement of Nazi Germany; historian Martin Pugh considers him "perhaps the most influential single propagandist for fascism between the wars".

[81] On 5 October 1930, Rothermere published an article in The Daily Mail where he denied being anti-semitic, but wrote: "I freely admit that the Jewish race has shown conspicuous political unwisdom since the War.

Nevertheless, they would do well to remember that the fact of leadership of the Bolshevist campaign against civilization and religion being almost entirely in the hands of men of their blood has done inevitable and incalculable harm to the reputation of the Hebrew race in every country of its adoption.

[55] In the Home Counties and in the resort towns, a disproportionate number of the members of the executive boards of the local Conservative constituency associations were either former civil servants of the Raj or retired Indian Army officers, both of whom had strong fears about the potential loss of "the jewel in the crown of the Empire" as India was often called.

[88] In November 1933, an article under his name appeared in The Daily Mail which warned: "If we fail to fill this vital gap in our national defense it is quite possible that many of us will live to see our country confronted at a few hours notice between the acceptance of a humiliating ultimatum and virtual annihilation from the air".

[99] The Rothermere newspapers were in the words of Reid Gannon "almost obsessional" in their demands for more spending on the RAF, which reflected Rothemere's belief that air power was the technology of the future that would decide wars.

[89] Addison noted that before the First World War, Northcliffe had run articles depicting in vivid terms a German conquest of Britain as a way to pressure the Liberal government to spend more on the Royal Navy and increase the circulation of his newspapers, and Rothermere's dire predications about the power of the Luftwaffe to inflict catastrophic damage on British cities were in the same vein.

[53] Despite having sharply differing views of the Third Reich, Rothermere allowed Churchill to write articles in the Daily Mail criticising the National Government for insufficient spending on the Royal Air Force with a special focus on the need to build more bombers.

[106] Both Rothermere and Churchill had an unlimited faith in the power of strategical bombing to win wars, which led both to argue that Bomber Command have the pride of place in regard to rearmament spending.

[107] Though Churchill was paid well for his articles, in a letter to his wife in August 1934, he wrote he was "disgusted" by the pro-Nazi tone of the Daily Mail, writing Rothermere wanted the United Kingdom to "be strongly armed and frightfully obsequious at the same...it was a more practical attitude than our socialist politicians.

[101] The victory of the Front populaire led by the Socialist Léon Blum in the elections for the French National Assembly in May 1936 followed by the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in July convinced Rothermere that Communists were taking over Europe.

In an article entitled "Get Together with Germany" published in July 1936, Rothermere praised the Nazi regime as a force for order in a world that he depicted as descending into chaos as he wrote: "...this powerful, patriotic and superbly organised country constitutes an element of stability amid those rising tendencies of disorder and disruption, which are becoming increasingly and seriously manifest in Europe".

[130] The MI5 papers also show that at the time Rothermere was paying an annual retainer of £5,000 to Stephanie von Hohenlohe (suspected by the French, British and Americans of being a German spy) as he wanted her to bring him closer to Hitler's inner circle.

[134] On 27 June 1939, Rothermere sent a telegram to Hitler appealing to him not to invade Poland that read: ""My Dear Führer, I have watched with understanding and interest the progress of your great and superhuman work in regenerating your country.

[136] His grandchildren, who met him in a hotel in Quebec City in May 1940, recalled that Rothermere had told them that he was convinced that Nazi Germany was destined to win the war, and that he felt that Churchill who just became prime minister on 10 May 1940 was foolish in not seeking peace.