NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLEROne of The Wall Street Journal’s Ten Best Books of 2018One of The Economist’s Best Books of 2018One of The New York Times’s Notable Books of 2018“Unarguably the best single-volume biography of Churchill . . . A brilliant feat of storytelling, monumental in scope, yet put together with tenderness for a man who had always believed that he would be Britain’s savior.” —Wall … man who had always believed that he would be Britain’s savior.” —Wall Street Journal
In this landmark biography of Winston Churchill based on extensive new material, the true genius of the man, statesman and leader can finally be fully seen and understood–by the bestselling, award-winning author of Napoleon and The Storm of War.
When we seek an example of great leaders with unalloyed courage, the person who comes to mind is Winston Churchill: the iconic, visionary war leader immune from the consensus of the day, who stood firmly for his beliefs when everyone doubted him. But how did young Winston become Churchill? What gave him the strength to take on the superior force of Nazi Germany when bombs rained on London and so many others had caved? In Churchill, Andrew Roberts gives readers the full and definitive Winston Churchill, from birth to lasting legacy, as personally revealing as it is compulsively readable.
Roberts gained exclusive access to extensive new material: transcripts of War Cabinet meetings, diaries, letters and unpublished memoirs from Churchill’s contemporaries. The Royal Family permitted Roberts–in a first for a Churchill biographer–to read the detailed notes taken by King George VI in his diary after his weekly meetings with Churchill during World War II. This treasure trove of access allows Roberts to understand the man in revelatory new ways, and to identify the hidden forces fueling Churchill’s legendary drive.
We think of Churchill as a hero who saved civilization from the evils of Nazism and warned of the grave crimes of Soviet communism, but Roberts’s masterwork reveals that he has as much to teach us about the challenges leaders face today–and the fundamental values of courage, tenacity, leadership and moral conviction.
more
What a tale… I enjoyed this book for so many reasons. Churchill was wickedly articulate and insightful, and he comes through on these pages in his own words. He played a pivotal role in the greatest conflicts of the last century, about which I am much better informed for having read this biography. His world was full of characters, for want of a better word, and they too are given ample opportunity to speak in their own words, and to convey first-hand a world familiar to my parents and grandparents. Then too, the story of a man whose path to leadership took many a switchback is inspiring. The race is not always to the media darling, nor to the politician who panders to small-mindedness. Churchill led from a conviction that British values of toughness, resilience, decency, and native wit would triumph over darkness–and they did.
Finally, the book is superbly written, such that the horrendous darkness of the first and second world wars does not overwhelm the recounting of an extraordinary life, and yet the writing is accurate, spectacularly well researched, and compelling. A great biography of a great (if flawed) man.
A superb piece of work. Churchill left a massive archive and lived a long time in the heart of things, I have no idea how Roberts squeezed it all in. Although the big page count and small font probably helped (didn’t help me to lift the book though, might be best read in ebook edition?).
At one point I began a list of his achievements but it became too long. Churchill’s name mainly appears in the history books of Irish schoolchildren as a) the one who armtwisted Michael Collins into accepting the partition of Ireland and b) as a leader in WWII. He was much more than that. I sought out this book after seeing him in “The Crown” and realising I knew little about him.
If you’re seeking confirmation of story A, btw, you won’t get it here, but there are a couple of moments when Dev drives him nuts, and I had no idea that the men met in London after the war.
Instead you follow him from a rather disfunctional family into politics and onto battlefields in South Africa (he escaped a prisoner of war camp), and two world wars, and beyond. He knew literally everybody and sounds like wonderful company. The author went through his own papers and the diaries of everybody who met him looking for hints of his genius. He found plenty of faults (which winston would admit himself) and a life that prepared him to plan how to win a war against a stronger enemy with Britain basically bankrupt, cut off from supplies by sea, bombed to bits, and driven from Dunkirk and without (non empire) allies. He kept telling the people they had to hang on, and they did.
I think what I liked the best was his championing of people to do their best – invent a tank, start the RAF, pensions to old widows, crazy weapons research, women in factories, Bletchley decoders, the start of a secret service, red “action today” stickers to light up departments. If you could convince him, he would back you to the hilt. He would also work you to the bone but never more than he would do himself.
He also wasn’t afraid to stick with his beliefs in face of huge opposition – nearly a decade warning about facism , years more warning about Stalin, and his best, albeit ineffective, efforts to organise bombing raids to cut train lines to the death camps once they found out about them.
Was he a huge monarchist and supporter of the empire, yes, he was a man of his time and class, but despite that he was good with all types of people and this book made me wish I could have met him, that’s the sign of a good bio. Hats off Mr Roberts, good work.
Roberts writes with great clarity and conviction. Strips away many of the hackneyed myths to leave a warts and all profile of a politician who shaped history.
Massive biography of Winston S. Churchill. For a non-fiction book, hard to put down! Outstanding research and writing.
Wonderful biography of Churchill. Seems very complete. Very readable. Loved it!
There are not enough Churchill books for me.
This one is like the most complete and cronological I have read.
It shows all the flows that Churchill had and the mistakes he made that cost many human lifes.
Long but great read if.
Excellent. All biographies should be this good.
One of greatest leaders of all time; including flaws!
Most comprehensive, up-to-date, and balanced single-volume biography of WSC.
Reading on Kindle I missed the ability to flip to the chart on the first page to track all of the people involved. the book was a fascinating look at the formative years of the twentieth century.
Excellent one-volume history of Winston Churchill. I recently interviewed Andrew Roberts on the History Happy Hour Livecast and I am deeply impressed with him as a writer, researcher, and all-around history storyteller. By the way, you can see that interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFWTanPmLKc
Excellent one volume account of a very complex and intriguing individual.