The Island and its role in the dark years of the Second World War feature in a current best-seller 1944: FDR and the Year That Changed History.

As the United States and president Franklin Roosevelt grappled with arguments over how to intervene in the Nazi campaign of genocide against Europe’s Jews, Bermuda provided an ideal location to hold secret talks.

The question of whether to attack Nazi concentration camps was complicated by the Allies’ overstretched war capabilities, but their humanitarian failings, juxtaposed with the peaceful island scenery, are explored by US author Jay Winik.

Mr Winik, a New York Times best-selling author, has been hailed by The Baltimore Sun as “one of the nation’s leading public historians”.

His 2001 best-seller April 1865 inspired a genre of history books. It was made into a History Channel documentary in which Mr Winik narrated; it also helped inspire the Robert Redford film The Conspirators.

His latest best-seller explores 1944 as the year of exceptional pressure on Roosevelt, as well as being the one that determined the war’s outcome.

Roosevelt knew Bermuda’s geographical significance, having observed in 1941, before the United States even entered the war, that if the Island fell into hostile hands, it would be “a matter of less than three hours for hostile bombers to reach our shores”.

Three years later, it was Bermuda’s relative obscurity that made the location ideal for the 1944 Anglo-American conference on refugees.

Bermuda was conveniently removed from the press and the humanitarian groups pushing for the attack on the camps to take higher priority.

The delegates stayed for 12 days at Horizons, “a luxurious plantation built in 1760”, Mr Winik writes.

“Breathtaking views of shimmering turquoise water” accompanied the faltering talks, which struggled to balance the burden on the American war machine with the massacres in Europe.

Roosevelt was familiar with the Island’s delights: Associate Justice Owen J Roberts was unable to attend as chairman of the American delegation, for example, prompting the president to respond that he was “truly sorry that you cannot go to Bermuda — especially at the time of the Easter lilies”.

However, as the Bermuda delegates were mired in disagreement, and Nazi forces closed in on the Jews of Warsaw, the “ill-fated” conference ended in silence. Mr Winik’s book has received extensive news coverage, including an appearance at the National Book Festival in Washington, DC.