#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The author of The Devil in the White City and Dead Wake delivers an intimate chronicle of Winston Churchill and London during the Blitz—an inspiring portrait of courage and leadership in a time of unprecedented crisis “One of [Erik Larson’s] best books yet . . . perfectly timed for the moment.”—Time • “A bravura performance by one of America’s greatest … performance by one of America’s greatest storytellers.”—NPR
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • Time • Vogue • NPR • The Washington Post • Chicago Tribune • The Globe & Mail • Fortune • Bloomberg • New York Post • The New York Public Library • Kirkus Reviews • LibraryReads • PopMatters
On Winston Churchill’s first day as prime minister, Adolf Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away. For the next twelve months, Hitler would wage a relentless bombing campaign, killing 45,000 Britons. It was up to Churchill to hold his country together and persuade President Franklin Roosevelt that Britain was a worthy ally—and willing to fight to the end.
In The Splendid and the Vile, Erik Larson shows, in cinematic detail, how Churchill taught the British people “the art of being fearless.” It is a story of political brinkmanship, but it’s also an intimate domestic drama, set against the backdrop of Churchill’s prime-ministerial country home, Chequers; his wartime retreat, Ditchley, where he and his entourage go when the moon is brightest and the bombing threat is highest; and of course 10 Downing Street in London. Drawing on diaries, original archival documents, and once-secret intelligence reports—some released only recently—Larson provides a new lens on London’s darkest year through the day-to-day experience of Churchill and his family: his wife, Clementine; their youngest daughter, Mary, who chafes against her parents’ wartime protectiveness; their son, Randolph, and his beautiful, unhappy wife, Pamela; Pamela’s illicit lover, a dashing American emissary; and the advisers in Churchill’s “Secret Circle,” to whom he turns in the hardest moments.
The Splendid and the Vile takes readers out of today’s political dysfunction and back to a time of true leadership, when, in the face of unrelenting horror, Churchill’s eloquence, courage, and perseverance bound a country, and a family, together.
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Erik Larson makes historical fiction easy, fun, interesting and an ultimate page-turner! He is a great friend of the Freeport Memorial Library in NY where he grew up and attended school.
I had no idea Churchill was such a character much less what England had to endure with the blitz and how long it took for the US to come around. Great historical account!
This was a detailed look at the period Churchill was in power during WWII. It was well researched and very interesting. The diaries and writings of those surrounding Churchill added a level of information that made the book very engaging.
I love his approach to relating history. His books are full of information, the good and bad, and they read like novels. Even if you know the outcome, you stay with the story to the end.
Another excellent book by Erik Larson this time focusing on Winston Churchill and his first year as Prime Minister when Hitler tried to bomb Great Britain into submission. Larson provides entertaining details about the Churchill family that gives the reader a vivid portrait not only of the PM but also his wife, children and key staff members that surrounded Churchill throughout the turmoil of the Blitz. As a counterpoint the author also delves into the personalities and actions of the German high command. A fascinating story of perseverance, courage, and political strategy during the chaos of the early days of World War II.
Fantastic insights into England’s battle with Germany during 1940-1941! Churchill was an incredible leader and motivator for his country–the only one who could had led England at this time.
I never knew what a stiff upper lip that the English had to be decimated so badly. London was bombed so badly before America came into the war. The fact that Churchill led the people’s resolve shows either great leadership, or a resolve not to surrender at all costs. Not my fave book, but I always find EL’s books interesting and well researched.
Who would have thought of Winston Churchill as whimsical?
Erik Larson is one of those nonfiction writers who can hold a fiction-reading audience firmly in his grasp, from beginning to end. The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz covers a relatively short period of time in British history, but every day is weighty and tense. As the daughter of a British mother and an American P-51 fighter pilot, I felt as if I were reading a part of their history they could never have explained so fully. Larson drives home the valor of the British people, the steadfast strength of their leaders, and the very human stories of the players behind the scenes. Highly recommended.
I found it to be difficult to read but worth the effort as it historical significance and it was well researched
This book provides an incredibly detailed picture of what Prime Minister Winston Churchill was thinking and doing as the Luftwaffe did its level best to bomb Great Britain into submission.
I liked it. I learned a lot about the relationship between FDR and Churchill.
Larson authors another historical page turner, perhaps more disjointed than
earlier tomes.
Book Review: The Splendid and the Vile by Eric Larson (2020) (Nonfiction) 5 Stars *****
Enough cannot be said about the brilliant determination of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to repel invasion and surrender to Nazi Germany during the WWII years. Nobody’s idea of a hero, this man shocked everyone as he analyzed, plotted, and strategized while he remained steadfast in his vow not to capitulate to Hitler’s blitz on the citizens of his beloved country, England—especially the hapless victims of incessant night bombings inflicted on the people of London. Unfortunately, as with so many heroes, the public quickly forgets them after they have passed their immediate usefulness. Even after these spectacular, world-changing circumstances, Sir Winston Churchill is dismissed by his people as someone whose time has passed, leaving Churchill with a broken heart, left to wonder what it was all about.
The aggressive, militaristic nation of Germany invaded Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. Czechoslovakia, Austria, Poland, Denmark, Norway, the British Channel Islands, and the Soviet Union. It was the invasion and subsequent surrender of France that broke Churchill’s heart. Having made a mutually beneficial pact, now France was not able to offer assistance to Great Britain that was forced to face their foe alone. Matched in stubborn determination, Churchill and Hitler refused to give in to the other. As the blitz attacks increased, Churchill’s resolve grew. He was not giving up his country.
Churchill begged the American president Franklin Delano Roosevelt for help, knowing he could not hold out against Germany indefinitely without American alliance, but for a number of years Roosevelt was determined to stay out of the conflict. As the United States began to offer some assistance, Japan bombed the American naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and the United States mobilized to enter into WWII as a British ally.
This book reads like a novel since the facts are told almost as a story, seamlessly giving an overview of the world situation, Britain’s suffering, and the personal lives, personalities, conversations and relationships of the major players in this historical period. Almost all of the major people kept diaries revealing personal as well as political reactions.
Winston Churchill was a quirky man. Almost always with a cigar in his mouth, he even announced the fall of France and the necessity of war against Germany over the radio with speech so garbled by his cigar that many thought it was a joke or that he may have been inebriated.
Churchill also took two long baths a day, and was know to conduct meetings with the movers and shakers of the world wrapped in little more than a towel. He would also dictate notes to his personal secretary from the bathtub or toilet, shouting across rooms with the ubiquitous cigar dangling from his mouth.
I recently reviewed Lady Clementine by Marie Benedict which tells the story of Churchill’s career from his wife’s point of view, emphasizing the role she played in his decision making and public and private relationships since she was the one with the charm and the clear-thinker of the two, according to this book. Most of the facts were the same in Lady Clementine as in The Splendid and the Vile.
This book is a wonderful account of Britain’s struggles to defend itself from evil. The author writes with voice, allowing us to remember these experiences belonged to real people with lives and families separate from their duty to country, trying to find balance in it all.
Excellent story telling. He makes history come alive with his books.
A timely book about a great character in history: Winston Churchill.
As always, it is meticulously researched and gives you the feel you are reading a novel because the characters come to life.
How Churchill inspired the British people in a dark time period is something we could all learn from and take solace.
I have a theory that most truly great leaders have experienced failure in their earlier lives, learned from the failure, changed and became better people. Churchill’s WWI and early war WWII experiences would break many a lesser man. He became the better for it and Erik Larson expertly lays out how.
Highly recommended.
Remarkable piece of history Interesting facts about Churchill that I didn’t know
History written like a novel as tells information of daily lives that make the story so much fuller and engaging. It is also a window into the politics of the time and how the population of America acted towards the event of war. Well worth reading.
I have enjoyed Erik Larson’s books ever since reading The Devil in the White City. I previously read and reviewed Dead Wake and also have read Isaac’s Storm. (I have In The Garden of Beasts on Kindle.)
The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz is his best book ever! And the timing is perfect. The world needs to be reminded of what true leadership is and the importance of cohesive single-minded resistance in facing catastrophe.
Larson presents the cold, hard numbers of losses but concentrates on the human side of Churchill’s personal family and closest aides and the experience of the common people of England.
Citizens trudged through the rubble to work after sleepless nights in air raid shelters. They planted gardens and kept farm animals to grow their own food. The volunteered their service. They lost everything and carried on.
Churchill was idiosyncratic, the Nazis delighting in making fun of his penchant for pink silk underwear and habitual clenching of a cigar between his teeth. Arriving in Washington, D.C. and staying in the White House, the president opened the door to a naked Prime Minister who quipped, I have nothing to hide, and went on to converse clad in a towel.
Churchill was fearless, watching the Blitz from rooftops, touring the devastated cities in an open car, never concerned for his personal safety. His example and his words inspired the people to find courage.
Churchill showed compassion and sorrow, he truly felt for the people he represented.
Churchill knew that Britain could not win a war against Germany. He kept up morale while desperately working to secure the American assistance that would save his country.
Drawing from her diary, Larson includes the personal life and romantic interests of the prime minister’s daughter Mary Churchill. And we read of the doomed marriage of Randolph Churchill, a gambling addict and womanizer, his wife Pamela falling for the American Averell Harriman who was negotiating the Lend-Lease program.
Readers also follow Nazi leaders, whose idiosyncrasies outpaced even Churchill’s. Goring liked to dress in costumes and makeup and amassed a huge collection of stolen art. Hesse traveled with a collection of pills on his clandestine flight to Britain, hoping to forge a peace agreement.
The book is everything you have heard it is.
I received an ARC from the publisher through Goodreads. My review is fair and unbiased.
Utterly brilliant!