RMS Mauretania (1906) and were requested by the British government to become armed merchant cruisers, but their huge size and massive fuel consumption made them unsuitable for the duty, and they resumed their civilian service on 11 August. Later, due to lack of passengers crossing the Atlantic, "Mauretania" was laid up in Liverpool until May 1915 at the time that "Lusitania" was sunk by a German U-boat. "Mauretania" was about to fill the void left by "Lusitania", but she was ordered by the British government to serve as a troop ship to carry British soldiers during the Gallipoli Campaign. She avoided becoming prey
The World That Never Was as "intriguing, provocative and written with a novelist’s eye for detail ... an engrossing journey". In "The Guardian", anarchist writer Stuart Christie noted the relevance of the book's themes to contemporary tactics in policing and the Metropolitan Police Service's reluctance to make public files from the 1890s. Francis Wheen, writing in the "Financial Times", wrote that the book was "exhilarating" and questioned whether "the world that never was – one ignoring borders, and divisions of class and religion – [might] resemble the world as it might one day be"; while Peter Preston of "The Observer" described Butterworth's story as one