In the early 1930s, Mussolini was at the height of his prestige. In Britain, no less an authority than The Tablet called the Duce “an intellectual giant”. Pope Pius XI had a soft spot for “Catholic totalitarianism” and eulogised Mussolini as “a man providence has sent us”. Churchill, Bernard Shaw, Evelyn Waugh, Sir John Reith of the BBC and Lord Rothermere were all among the admirers of a dictator who had saved Italy from Bolshevism, settled a concordat with the Vatican, and made the trains run on time.