|amazonus=<amazonus>1848766572</amazonus>
}}
[[image:markellisbanner.png|center|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/sMark-Ellis/e/B00H5XFUQO/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_10sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?urlqid=search-alias%3Ddigital-text1445963924&fieldsr=1-keywords=mark%20ellis&sprefix=mark+ellis%2Caps%2C1711]]
In the early part of the Second World War there was a lull, when hostilities didn't really seem to get going – the so-called Phoney War. Some Londoners, who'd left the capital in the expectation of early bombing raids, began drifting back and there were still those who thought that peace could be negotiated – that we could stay out of the fight. Chief amongst those outside of the political classes who supported this view was the American Ambassador, Joseph Kennedy. Kennedy was, perhaps fortunately but not unusually, out of the country when one of the staff at the residence was murdered and her body fished out of the Thames.