Meeting Jimmy Carter — and getting a scoop about Bush, Blair and Iraq from the perfect gentleman

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. He stretched out his hand to offer it in greeting and said something along the measure of: “Thanks for coming down to see us.” Jimmy Carter — who died Sunday at his home in Plains, Georgia, at age 100 — was always known as a gentleman, a farmer from Georgia who had held the most powerful political office in the world. He’d written plenty of books — he would go on to author more than 30 — but this was his first novel, one that the publisher Simon & Schuster described as “a sweeping novel of the American South and the War of Independence.” The publisher had said: “With its moving love story, vivid action, and the suspense of a war fought with increasing ferocity and stealth, The Hornet’s Nest is historical fiction at its best, in the tradition of such major classics as The Last of the Mohicans.” open image in gallery Jimmy Carter was the author of many books during his life time In truth, the novel had been a bit slow going, packed dense with historical detail, but when The Independent received the chance to talk about it, we leaped. Former US president Jimmy Carter to ‘spend remaining time’ at Georgia home His view was that historians had misunderstood the war, concluding with the surrender of the British forces under General Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia, on 19 October, 1781, and it had been essential in creating the notion of how Americans see themselves. open image in gallery Carter believed Tony Blair allowed George Bush to push him into supporting the 2003 invasion of Iraq My fingers scrambled to scribble down everything he said, and he continued.