The Emigres

Could World War Two have been avoided and history rewritten?

In August 1939, a group of political dissidents flee from Britain to avoid arrest because of their opposition to the war with Germany. Their belief that the war, and the expected loss of life, could have been avoided, has made them fugitives from their own country. Finding refuge in Dublin, where they are safe from arrest by the British authorities, they set out their case against the war.

But one of their number fails to make it to Dublin. Eventually, one of the group makes a dangerous journey back to London to find out what has happened, and ends up making a dramatic rescue attempt.

A story with two distinct themes. The first about dissidents who faced being arrested without trial under the Emergency Powers Act, which was rushed through Parliament in August 1939; the second explores the possibility that alternative courses of action might have avoided the necessity of war. The two themes are united by the shadow of totalitarianism which darkened Europe at that time, in Britain as well as on the continent.