ABSTRACT
From 1944, Cunningham kept a diary, justifying it by remarking, ‘So many interesting things are happening that I think it behoves me to keep a diary’.1 It was illegal to do so but it was a major means of letting off steam, particularly against the Prime Minister. Cunningham acknowledged that he had been ‘Very crotchety these last few months and difficult in temper but we have had much to try us’.2 The war was fast approaching its climax, post-war issues were beginning to over-shadow military concerns, and the leading personalities, increasingly exhausted, often displayed exasperation.
