The Kaiser in Disguise?

In this powerful second part of The Edwardian Literary Tramp, historian and storyteller Quintin Watt turns his attention to Harry Payne’s experiences during the First World War, when a life spent on the road suddenly became dangerous.

As war spread across Europe, Britain entered a period of fear, suspicion, and heightened surveillance. Payne — a partially-sighted itinerant writer who continued to travel the country during wartime — found himself viewed with increasing distrust. Moving from town to town, asking questions, and recording observations for newspapers, he was repeatedly suspected of espionage, accused of being everything from a German agent to “the Kaiser in disguise.”

Drawing on Payne’s own writings and contemporary reactions, this talk explores:

How wartime paranoia transformed everyday life on the home front

Why tramps, travellers, and outsiders became targets of suspicion

Payne’s encounters with the authorities and hostile civilians

What his story reveals about civil liberties, fear, and national identity in wartime Britain

Both thought-provoking and deeply human, Are You the Kaiser in Disguise? sheds light on an overlooked perspective of the First World War — that of an ordinary man navigating extraordinary times, when simply being different could make you a suspect.

Ideal for audiences interested in social history, wartime Britain, hidden voices of the First World War, and the impact of conflict on everyday lives.