Inquiring Minds: Magic At War: The True Story of the Illusionist Who fooled hitler

In 1941, the British army was short of men, equipment and ideas. Whenever they fought the Germans, they lost. But out in Egypt, one man had a plan to turn things around.
   
   Lt. Colonel Dudley Clarke, a soldier, spy and writer, realized he could use the stage magic principles he’d learned as a boy to mislead the enemy about British strength and intentions. By 1944 he had built a global deception operation that saw the Allies surprise Hitler at D-Day.
   
   Along the way he would name the SAS, oversee the longest-running double agent operation of the war, and stage the largest magic show the world has ever seen. But the very boldness and eccentricity that made him a genius would see him risk destroying everything he’d built – and himself.
   
   SPEAKER BIO: Robert Hutton is a journalist and author. He worked for The Mirror and the Financial Times (UK newspapers) before joining Bloomberg to lead its UK political coverage, where for 16 years he followed five prime ministers around the globe. In 2020 he became political sketch writer for The Critic magazine, and in the ensuing four years he got through another three prime ministers.
   
   He is the author of two books about language and two books on intelligence history, Agent Jack and The Illusionist.

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