Andrew Roberts is the bestselling author of The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War, Masters and Commanders: How Four Titans Won the War in the West, 1941-1945, Waterloo: Napoleon's Last Gamble and Napoleon: A Life, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for biography and a finalist for the Plutarch Award. He has won many other prizes, including the Wolfson History Prize and the British Army Military Book of the Year, and frequently writes for The Wall Street Journal. He lives in London and often lectures in New York.
A USA Today Book You Won't Want to Miss
A Washington Post Book to Read in November
A Christian Science Monitor Best Book of November
A Mental Floss Best Book of 2018
An Octavian Report Essential Read for 2019
A New York Post Book That Should Be On Everyone's Holiday
Gift List
A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2018
A Lit Hub Best Book of 2018
Shortlisted for the 2019 Plutarch Award
The best single-volume biography of Churchill yet written. . . .
Roberts tells this story with great authority and not a little
panache. He writes elegantly, with enjoyable flashes of tartness,
and is in complete command both of his sources and the vast
historiography.
--Richard Aldous, The New York Times
Terrific . . . By drawing on many previously untapped
sources, Mr. Roberts has produced a more complete picture of his
subject than any previous biography.
--The Economist Even if you've read every other book about the
former prime minister and seen all the movies, expect revelations.
For example: The royal family permitted the author to read King
George VI's diary notes about his wartime meetings with Churchill.
That's a first.
--The Washington Post Brilliant, breathtaking, unputdownable . .
. the definitive picture of our greatest political leader. All
Roberts's past life has been but a preparation for this hour and
this work, and this brilliant book is a fitting crown to his own
career.
--London Evening Standard
Roberts' new biography ( out of four) stands tall, re-illuminating
the well-etched contours of Churchill's monumental life with
scrupulous scholarship and a flair for unearthing the telling
detail; looking twice where most biographers have been content to
glance once.
--USA Today In this season of giving, get (and give)
Andrew Roberts's brilliant new biography. . . . A review last month
in The Times called it 'the best single-volume biography of
Churchill yet written, ' but it's more than that. It's an antidote
to the reigning conceits, self-deceptions, half-truths and cliches
of our day.
--Bret Stephens, The New York Times The best biography of
Winston ever written . . . bursts with character, humour and
incident on almost every page.
--The Sunday Times "At a time when every fraud and charlatan is
taking refuge in spurious fantasies of Churchilliana, it is
salutary to read this brilliant, bracing mega-biography of Winston
Churchill and be reminded what Britain's most famous prime minister
was actually like."
--The Guardian Fantastically readable prose, which flows along in a
pitch-perfect combination of erudition and eloquence . . . In
brightly engaging chapters, Roberts takes readers through all the
stages of Churchill's adventurous life as a soldier of the empire
and then as a professional politician . . . Roberts is a shrewd and
experienced biographer.
--Christian Science Monitor A tour de force of scrupulous selection
and astute appraisal, perhaps the best full-scale biography to date
in a field where the competition has been crowded and stiff.
--National Review A stupendous achievement: lucid, erudite,
intelligent, but also inspiring. Roberts catches the imperishable
grandeur of Churchill's life as no other historian has done.
Roberts does full justice to Churchill's superhuman range of
activity.
--Standpoint Magazine The best single-volume life imaginable of a
man whose life it would seem technically impossible to get into a
single volume.
--Daily Telegraph Roberts brilliantly conjures up one of the most
fascinating characters of all time. He enriches the saga with
wonderful examples of Churchill's aristocratic eccentricities,
glittering oratory and wit.
--Literary Review It's the sort of biography that, one feels,
Churchill himself would have wanted: colossal, energetic, deeply
knowledgeable, properly critical, but also sympathetic and, in
places, deliciously funny.
--Noel Malcolm, Sunday Telegraph Roberts is a master
storyteller.
--The Weekly Standard [Roberts's] research is outstanding, based on
archival and primary sources . . . What emerges in Roberts' book is
a man full of complexities. . . . Roberts' book is full of insights
and facts that provide a deeper understanding of Churchill.
--Tom Hallman, Jr., The Oregonian This definitive biography
of the storied leader was made possible through unprecedented
access to material, including diaries, letters, unpublished memoirs
and even the detailed diary notes taken by King George VI.
--New York Post Terrific . . . Churchill probably lived the most
variegated life of any political figure of the 20th century.
Moreover, he was obnoxious, charming, emotional, selfish and
patriotic. Roberts has captured his complexity in a way that few
historians have ever imagined.
--The Boston Herald Roberts's brilliant new book is not only
learned and sagacious but also thrilling and fun. An award-winning
historian and biographer, an expert on statecraft, leadership, and
the Second World War, Roberts writes with authority and confidence.
Enriched by such previously unseen material as King George VI's
wartime diaries, [Churchill] should stand as the definitive
one-volume Churchill biography.
--The City Journal Andrew Roberts has written the best
single-volume biography of Winston Churchill to date.
--New York Journal of Books Widely praised as the best
single-volume biography of Winston Churchill ever written,
historian and commentator Roberts draws on previously unavailable
journals and notes for the robust, engrossing, and nuanced history
of the great British leader.
--The National Book Review Roberts writes gripping narrative
history without deserting high scholarly standards. . . . Surely
the last word for years to come on Churchill.
--History Today Like all of Andrew Roberts's histories,
Churchill is massively researched and exquisitely written. The
author's sharp sense of humor is often in evidence and warmly
complements Churchill's own. This is a brilliant work, by a very
fine historian, on a permanently heroic and always fascinating
figure.
--The New Criterion Wonderful, masterly . . . There have been
few lives as long, momentous, and wide-ranging as that of Sir
Winston Churchill, author, adventurer, orator, wit, painter, animal
lover, friend, and politician. Andrew Roberts's masterful,
supremely readable biography has a text 982 pages long. It could
hardly have been shorter and told so extraordinary a story so
well.
--Commentary The most superb one-volume biography I have ever
read--of anyone. . . . Roberts also manages something I thought
impossible. He has given us a new, ground-breaking portrait of the
man whom many consider to be the greatest ever Englishman. . . .
Roberts's brilliance as a biographer was clear from his very first,
of Lord Halifax. Re-reading it in tandem with this magnificent
Churchill, one sees yet again just how finely history turns on
random and uncertain events. . . . This is a simply wonderful book.
A living, poetic, stirring yet thought-provoking portrait of a
giant, it will be regarded as a classic for generations to
come.
--The Jewish Chronicle Terrific. . . . [Roberts] is one of the
great historians of his generation and he is stupendously readable.
. . . Andrew Roberts has captured [Churchill's] complexity in a way
that few historians have ever imagined.
--The American Spectator "Not only is it the best biography I have
read this year; it might well be the best I've read ever. In terms
of Roberts's oeuvre, this book will surely stand as his
masterpiece. This is biography as art, and a finer example one
could scarcely hope to read. Why on earth does the world need
another biography of Churchill? Before reading this, it would have
been hard to say. Afterwards, very easy indeed--because it needed
Andrew Roberts to write it."
--The Catholic Herald "Winston Churchill was perhaps the greatest
leader of the twentieth century and a person who never ceases to
fascinate and inspire. Widely hailed as the best single volume
biography of Churchill ever written, historian Roberts' magisterial
biography captures the unfailing spirit of the man who saved Europe
in all his flawed brilliance."
--The Octavian Report In my opinion, the book, Churchill: Walking
with Destiny, is the most precious gift of the year 2018--in
history, education, knowledge, and literature. . . . If there were
a Nobel Prize for historical research, Andrew Roberts would be a
perfect candidate.
--The Jerusalem Report A page-turner . . . full of new material
that has not been previously available to Churchill scholars.
Roberts manages to mobilize these tremendous sources into a
well-paced narrative that is full of exciting passages--which
matches perfectly the venturesome spirit of Winston Churchill.
--Law & Liberty A complex and compelling depiction of one of
the most important political leaders of the 20th century, one sure
to enlighten and provoke both those familiar with Churchill and
those who may know little beyond . . . a tour de force. Roberts has
given us a great gift. He presents a Churchill in all of his
complexity. What makes this book essential for those who care about
reviving and defending liberal democracy in our time is that it
reminds us that, even at moments when old hatreds burn bright and
few are willing to swim against the current, it is still possible
for great leaders to emerge.
--American Interest I didn't think we really needed a new
Churchill biography, or, having read so many, that I would find a
new one catching up my attention, but Roberts proved me wrong. In
addition to new source material, Roberts's judgments about
Churchill, and his keen selection of the most salient details about
Churchill thought and action, are superb.
--Claremont Review of Books A magnificent and
carefully nuanced life and times of Winston Churchill, elegantly
written, studded with new research, and deeply imagined. Andrew
Roberts accomplishes a minor miracle in offering a fresh,
empathetic portrait in an authoritative and fast-paced narrative
that never flags. Roberts explores Winston Churchill's strengths
and weaknesses as a leader, his self-centeredness and his
generosity, allowing us to feel both Churchill's personal
vulnerabilities as well as his force as a public figure.
--Biographers International Organization A heroic biography,
appropriately matched to the ambition, egotism, and undoubted
achievement of the life it describes. It will surely remain the
outstanding Churchill biography for many years to come.
--International Churchill Society The newly definitive
one-volume biography of its subject . . . Andrew Roberts has
brilliantly reconstructed the life of a titanic figure of the
twentieth century within the intellectual context of his times. As
such, Churchill constitutes a first-rate, authentic work of
historical scholarship for our time.
--History News Network Riveting . . . A masterful biography,
rich in detail and insight.
--Booklist (starred review) A well-researched and
exceptionally well-written biography . . . This compelling book is
likely to become a standard text on Churchill and will be difficult
to keep on the shelves.
--Library Journal (starred review) This biography is
exhaustively researched, beautifully written and paced, deeply
admiring but not hagiographic, and empathic and balanced in its
judgments--a magnificent achievement.
--Publishers Weekly (starred review) A clear,
well-limned view of a complex figure who, in no danger of being
forgotten, continues to inspire. The most comprehensive
single-volume biography of Churchill that we have in print and a
boon for any student of the statesman and his times.
--Kirkus Reviews (starred
review)
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