Freedom of expression is so fundamental to a writer that it comes as a shock to discover how many celebrated literary figures of the twentieth century were drawn to fascism. The very notion that writers of the stature of Ezra Pound, Wyndham Lewis or Norwegian Nobel Prize-winner, Knut Hamsun, could openly condone a regime that publicly burned books, or tortured and killed people simply for expressing a view, is deeply perplexing.
