An Accidental Villain by Linden MacIntyre
A Soldier's Tale of War, Deceit, and Exile, reviewed by Heather McBriarty
How does a man go from a distinguished career as a general in the First World War who was mentioned in dispatches for gallantry multiple times, to the chief of a notoriously brutal police death squad in Ireland? From there, to languishing in obscurity in a remote British colony? That is the question Linden MacIntyre asks in his new biography of Major-General Sir Henry Hugh Tudor, An Accidental Villain: A Soldier’s Tale of War, Deceit and Exile.
Tudor is an inscrutable character. A prolific letter writer and diarist during his time at the Western Front, he left almost no record of his thoughts and motives from his years in Ireland during the Anglo-Irish War as head of the notorious Black and Tans. Nor why he abandoned his long-suffering, loyal wife and fled across the Atlantic to the then-colony of Newfoundland. A close friend of Winston Churchill’s from their days in the army in India — the man who persuaded Tudor to take the position as police chief in Dublin and gave Tudor his orders – the general would bear the shame of his time in Ireland, while Churchill rose to great power and acclaim. What could possibly motivate a cautious, thoughtful, 47-year-old career soldier to take up a position in policing, especially when he could have retired with his knighthood to a comfortable, respectable, quiet life with his family?
“…a book that flows like an intricate novel, yet takes a deep dive into a history that should never be forgotten.”
Highly decorated himself – he is an Emmy, Gemini, and Giller Prize-winning journalist and novelist – MacIntyre put all his considerable skills into researching and writing about the shadowy figure of Tudor. From his days as a rising young soldier to his uncelebrated death in 1965, at age 50. This was mere months after his friend, Churchill.’s. He has penned a book that flows like an intricate novel, yet takes a deep dive into a history that should never be forgotten. An Accidental Villain is a story at times shocking in the casual brutality Tudor authorized in Ireland, mirroring the arrogant assumption of right and superiority inherent in the British Empire. A large portion of the book covers Tudor’s time there in detail and is unflinching in documenting the vicious retaliatory nature of the British police during the Irish war for independence. As a result, it is not an easy read but a compelling and important one.
At other times MacIntyre paints a more sympathetic picture (perhaps more than Tudor deserved?) of a pitiful man, driven to act against his own morals and inclination, left alone and near friendless. Tudor was perhaps as deeply affected by the First World War as many of his soldiers in the firing line. Certainly, he seems to have cared deeply for, and was respected by, the Newfoundlanders who served under him. Perhaps he saw abandoning his family as the only way to save them and himself from the reprisal of the IRA. Ultimately, Tudor’s life path was one of his own making. As MacIntyre writes in his prologue, “Over the years Tudor had accepted several important invitations and requests from Churchill he might prudently have declined.”
In the end, we, the readers, are left only gazing through a window at an enigma, Tudor himself silent and remote, looking back with veiled eyes.
About the Author
Linden MacIntyre’s bestselling first novel, The Long Stretch, was nominated for a CBA Libris Award and his boyhood memoir, Causeway: A Passage from Innocence, won both the Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-fiction and the Evelyn Richardson Award. His second novel, The Bishop’s Man, was a #1 national bestseller, won the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Dartmouth Book Award and the CBA Libris Fiction Book of the Year Award, among other honours. The third book in the loose-knit trilogy, Why Men Lie, was also a #1 bestseller as well as a Globe and Mail “Can’t Miss” Book. His novels Punishment and The Only Cafe were also national bestsellers, as was his 2019 work of non-fiction, The Wake. A distinguished broadcast journalist, MacIntyre, who was born in St. Lawrence, Newfoundland, and grew up in Port Hastings, Cape Breton, spent twenty-four years as the co-host of the fifth estate. He has won ten Gemini awards for his work. MacIntyre lives in Toronto with his wife, CBC radio host and author Carol Off. They spend their summers in a Cape Breton village by the sea.
About the Reviewer
Heather McBriarty is the author of the non-fiction account of the First World War, Somewhere in Flanders: Letters from the Front and a novel of the “Great War” Amid the Splintered Trees. She is a blogger, reviewer and served as a juror for the 2023 Atlantic Book Awards. By day, she is a Medical Radiation Technologist, doting grandmother, and avid sailor. She lives by the sea in historic Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.
Book Details
Publisher : Random House Canada
Publication date : Aug. 12 2025
Language : English
Print length : 384 pages
ISBN-10 : 0735282021
ISBN-13 : 978-0735282025