Winston Churchill is undoubtedly one of the most respected and best-loved characters the nation has ever known. However, much of how people view him is based on his leadership during the bleak and dire times of the Second World War. If it wasn't for him, Britain would almost definitely have lost the war: there were those in government who encouraged Churchill to strike a deal with Hitler at the time of the Dunkirk evacuations, which took place just three weeks after he had been made Prime Minister, but he stuck resolutely to his guns and said, no'.
However, Churchill was never the favourite to take over after Neville Chamberlain resigned. Indeed, everyone believed Lord Halifax would be the next Prime Minister, although even he thankfully recognised that Winston Churchill was the best man for the job, even though King George VI disagreed.
Yet there was another side to Churchill that is not often spoken of, and one that led to him making some questionable decisions. Some of these, it could be argued, were for national security reasons, but others were not, proving that even the very best are not always as perfect as they first appear.
Thank you to NetGalley and Pen & Sword for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
I really enjoy reading historical non-fiction, specifically that of British History in war times, and this was a really interested read. I enjoyed that it wasn't a book blowing smoke up Churchill's arse and spoke honestly about the mistakes he made and just general bad calls that he made. I liked how this book went chronologically through history and reviewing those bad decisions made and the horrible consequences of those decisions, that never tended to truly affect Churchill as much as others.
The only thing I didn't enjoy about this book were the couple of times the author speculated about how Churchill would've been or felt, I don't really like this kind of author commentary in a completely factual non-fiction, but I enjoyed the book overall.
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13 August, 2020:
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13 August, 2020:
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