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The splendid and the vile : a saga of Churchill, family and defiance during the Blitz

Larson, Erik, 1954-2020
Books
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.
Imprint:
London : William Collins, 2020.
Collation:
xii, 585 pages : 1 illustration, 1 map ; 24 cm.
Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents:
Bleak Expectations -- The Rising Threat -- A Certain Eventuality -- Dread -- Blood and Dust -- The Americans -- Love Amid the Flames -- One Year to the Day -- Epilogue: as time went by.
ISBN:
97800082749799780008274948
Dewey class:
940.542121941.082092940.5421
Language:
English
BRN:
367431
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