Anthony Paice

The Winchester Powerhouse

Presenting portraits of the Winchester bishops down to the Norman Conquest, The Winchester Power-House is the first volume of a study covering the lives of some one hundred holders of the high ecclesiastical office. Characterised overwhelmingly by benevolence, the pre-Conquest prelates were at the forefront of the reconversion of southern Britain to Christianity.

Beyond their spiritual role, however, they also helped to make Winchester – rather than London or Canterbury – the powerhouse of the expanding kingdom of Wessex and eventually of all England; they helped ensure that it remained the most prized and prestigious diocese in England down to the Reformation.

As key counsellors to the Wessex kings, as reformers, even warriors on occasion, these men exerted a strong influence on the introduction of successive Saxon legal codes and judicial process. Indeed, during the development of an embryonic royal chancery in the early 11th century, the bishop was invariably the choice for chancellor, the king’s chief minister. It is no accident that the last bishop, Stigand, was both bishop of Winchester and archbishop of Canterbury.

Overkill or Under-kill

Middle East and Counter-Terrorism expert Anthony Paice uses research and analysis to trace the underlying causes of the Iraqi takeover of Kuwait in 1990, adding his own personal experiences of the events. He reveals how neither London nor Washington had their eyes on the ball in the months leading up to the invasion and missed opportunities to prevent it.

The successful liberation of Kuwait, he contends, allowed American and British authorities to bury mistakes and hide behind bland denials – including that a special operation had compromised BA flight 149, leading to the detention of hundreds of passengers. This book explores this position and goes on to show how Western miscalculations have led to further sorry situations in the Middle East, culminating in the precipitate withdrawal of forces from Kabul in August 2021 and the disgraceful betrayal of the Afghan people.