Since the beginning of my tenure as a Stay-At-Home-Dad, I've been reading William Manchester's biography of Winston Churchill. Aside from the desire to reach through the book and throttle people that's the inevitable reaction to 1930's diplomacy, it's been a great read — just about the right kind of prose to wade through with a bottle in your other hand.
There's just one problem: There's no last volume.
Can anybody offer suggestions on a replacement for volume three of The Last Lion?
Posted by Ben Brumfield at October 17, 2005 05:51 PMIn Command of History: Churchill Fighting and Writing the Second World War, by David Reynolds, published in the US next month. Not a biography in the conventional sense; much, much more. Combines personal, political, military and literary history with an excellent historiographical overview of many of the most contentious issues of the war.
In fact, if you make this a 'Book Club' project I may even have something to say about it.
Posted by: Alan Allport at October 18, 2005 12:46 AMI waited for that third volume for years. Unfortunately Manchester developed Alzheimers and was never able to complete the trilogy.
What a loss.
Curious though, does the volume mentioned above cover anything post WWII?
Curious though, does the volume mentioned above cover anything post WWII?
Yes, because it is 'set' from about 1946 to 1953 when Churchill and his research team were writing The Second World War and discusses in some detail WSC's second period in the 'wilderness', when he was Leader of the Opposition and his career apparently at a distinguished but definite end.
Posted by: Alan Allport at October 19, 2005 01:27 AM