This edition of the highly acclaimed one-volume CHURCHILL: A LIFE is the story of adventure. It follows Winston Churchill from his earliest days to his moments of triumph. Here the drama & excitement of his story are ever-present as are his tremendous qualities in peace & war not least as an orator & as a man of vision. Martin Gilbert gives us a vivid portrait using Churchill's most personal letters & the recollections of his contemporaries both friends & enemies to go behind the scenes of some of the stormiest & most fascinating political events of our time dominated by two world wars & culminating in the era of the Iron Curtain & the hydrogen bomb. ...

Winston Churchill is one of the dominating figures of the 20th century. In this stimulating & original book David Dilks presents Churchill not only as a war leader & international statesman but also as a private person with a rich variety of friendships & rivalries. New & penetrating light is directed on Churchill during World War II. This was a period of dramatic relationships: conflicts with General de Gaulle in contrast with respect & affection for Roosevelt (feelings not entirely reciprocated by the American president). In the post-war era relations with Stalin & precoccupation with the Soviet Union & the Cold War all dominated Churchills subsequent career a time when he was able to renew his working relationship with his wartime colleague General
- now President
- Eisenhower. Whether in or out of office Churchills influence was felt in all areas of British politics. David Dilks brings Churchill vividly to life for all those interested in modern British military & international history.

...

One of our finest narrative historians & journalist for the SUNDAY TIMES & LITERARY REVIEW Lawrence James has written a genuinely new biography of Winston Churchill set within a fully detailed historical context but solely focusing on his relationship with the British Empire. As a young army officer in the late 19th century Churchill's first experience of the Empire was serving in conflicts in India South Africa & the Sudan. His attitude towards the Empire at the time was the stereotypical Victorian paternalistic approach
- a combination of feeling responsible & feeling superior. Conscious even then of his political career ahead Churchill's natural benevolence towards the Empire was occasionally overruled for political reasons & he found himself reluctantly supporting
- or at least not publicly condemning
- British atrocities. As a politician he consistently relied on the Empire for support during crises but was angered by any demands for nationalisation. He held what many would regard today as racist views in that he felt that some nationalities were superior to others but he didn't regard those positions as fixed. His (some might say obsequious) relationship with America reflected that view. America was a former colony where the natives had become worthy to rule themselves but
- he felt
- still had that tie to Britain. Thus he overlooked the frequently expressed American view that the Empire was a hangover from a bygone era of colonisation & reflected poorly on Britain's ability to conduct herself as a political power in the current world order. This outmoded attitude was one of the reasons the British voters rejected him after a Second World War in which
- it was universally felt
- he had led the country brilliantly. His attitude remained Victorian in a world that was shaping up very differently. However it would be a mistake to consider Churchill merely as an anachronistic soldier. He grasped the problems of the Cold War immediately believing that immature nations prematurely given independence would be more likely to be sucked into the vortex of Communism. This view chimed with American foreign policy & made the Americans rather more pragmatic about their demands for self-governance for Empire countries. Lawrence James has written a fascinating portrait of an endlessly interesting statesman
- & one that

Includes:: tantalising vignettes about his penchants for silk underwear & champagne.









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Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 Churchill & Stalin secretly agreed that Britain would infiltrate Soviet agents into occupied Western Europe. Liaison began between the NKVD & the SOE each countrys secret service. Transported in convoys across the Arctic Ocean & often attacked by German U-Boats thirty-four men & women arrived in Scotl&. To stop people finding out that Britain was helping the Communists the agents were given false identities & provided with accommodation & training at remote country houses in southern England including Beaulieu. Codenamed PICKAXES they were sent for parachute practice at Ringway aerodrome provided with documents cover stories & wireless sets & sent on clandestine missions into France Belgium Holland Austria Germany & Italy. Whilst most were sent from RAF Tempsford Churchills Most Secret airfield one was sent by boat across the Channel & another by submarine into Northern Italy. Only a few survived the war as most were caught interrogated & executed. Based on extensive research Bernard OConnor tells their human stories enmeshed in a web of political intrigue & diplomacy. ...

Churchill (1874-1965) was one of the 20th centurys most charismatic & controversial figures. He escaped from capture as a prisoner of war in the Boer War was a Nobel Prize-winning author & twice prime minister. He is best remembered as the astute & powerful orator who inspired a battered Britain to victory & led the post-war shattered nation to recovery. Richard Langworth co-chairman & editor of The Churchill Centre" has spent over 20 years researching Churchills written & spoken words. In " Churchill by Himself" which is fully authorised by the Churchill Estate Langworth has edited & annotated this library to make the definitive collection of Churchills words thematically arranged. He also highlights the myriad"ations commonly mis-attributed to Churchill. From his meetings with world leaders such as Roosevelt de Gaulle & Stalin his verbal engagements with Hitler & the Third Reich to his wit & oratory on the floor of the Commons every facet of Churchills life & times is explored with his own pragmatic intelligence sharp humour & legendary wisdom." ...

Sir Winston Churchill statesman orator & former Prime Minister was a man whose words gave hope & inspiration to the British people & many are as relevant today as they were during the war years. Churchill's speeches were not always confined to serious political rhetoric & motivation: his off-the-cuff quips & comments displayed a wry wit & humour. Churchill in"es" is a celebration of this outstanding figure in British history presented in almost 200 photographs hand picked from the vast archives of the Press Association. It covers the major events in Churchill's life: from his birth & early days at Blenheim Palace to his marriage & the birth of his children; his service in the army war correspondence & role as First Lord of the Admiralty & appointment as Chancellor the Exchequer; his formation of government as wartime Prime Minister & the political & cabinet posts held during almost 50 years; his career as a historian & author; & his hobby as a sensitive artist & his retirement & death at the age of 90." ...

In Traps a set of characters meet themselves & their pasts to create plenty of sinewy lines & joyous juxtapostions" (Plays & Players); Vinegar Tom "is set in the world of seventeenth-century witchcraft but it speaks through its striking images & its plethora of ironic contradictions of & to this century..." (Tribune); Light Shining in Buckinghamshire is set during the Civil War & "unflinchingly shows the intolerance that was the obverse side of the demand for common justice. Deftly it sketches in the kind of social conditions. that led to hunger for revolution... The play has an austere eloquence that precisely matches its subject." (The Guardian) Cloud Nine sheds light on some of the British Empires repressed dark side & is "a marvelous play
- sometimes scurrilous always observed with wicked accuracy & ultimately surprisingly rather moving. It plunges straight to the heart of the endless convolutions of sexual mores...and does so with acrobatic wit." (Guardian) Owners:"I was in an old womans flat when a young man offering her money to move came round that was one of the starting points of the play" (Caryl Churchill). The plays in this volume represent the best of Churchills writing up to & including her emergence onto the international theatre scene with Cloud Nine."
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We Churchills die at forty said Winston in 1908 and I want to put something more on the slate before then. By the time he died in 1965 the slate was full. From his earliest days Churchill was an ambitious character eager for action. He achieved fame & popularity through his dispatches from the Boer War & in 1900 was elected MP for Oldham. Until the outbreak of war in 1939 Churchill was loved & loathed in equal measure. Critics & supporters alike recognised his vision but often questioned his judgement. In the thirties his out-of-touch views on subjects such as Indian nationalism meant that his warnings on German militarism were not taken seriously. On the day Churchill took office as Prime Minister Hitler invaded the low countries; by mid-June France had fallen. A lesser man would have been overwhelmed. Even his opponents do not doubt his greatness as a leader during the Second World War. But the 1945 election brought a shock defeat. Despite this setback in 1951 at the age of 77 he returned to serve a second term as Prime Minister. Churchill Remembered" draws on a wealth of archive broadcasts by among others Robert Boothby violet Bonham Carter Nancy Astor Oswald Mosley & Churchill himself & encompasses the whole of his extraordinary life. This is a fascinating & illuminating audio portrait of the life & career of one of Britains greatest leaders recounted by those who knew him & in his own words." ...

The Churchill tank has a strong case to be acclaimed the best British tank of World War II. Centrepiece of this manual is the restoration of a troop of three Churchill tanks to full running order by the Churchill Tank Project. The first to be restored was put through its paces at The Tank Museum in the UK next to a Tiger tank that was originally knocked out by an identical Churchill. Author Nigel Montgomery who owns & restores Churchills looks at the tank's development construction & war record & gives a superbly illustrated insight into the fighting history of Churchills & what it is like to restore & drive them. ...

Walter H. Thompson was Churchills bodyguard from 1921 until 1945 brought back from retirement at the outbreak of war. Tom Hickmans authorised biography draws heavily on extracts from a manuscript recently discovered by his great-niece in which Thompson gives a unique insiders account of a number of occasions on which Churchills life was put seriously at risk & his intervention was needed. After the war Thompson married one of Churchills secretaries & her recollections as well as those of surviving family members are interwoven to tell the revelatory inside story of life beside the Greatest Briton. ...