Churchill
By: Ashley Jackson
Publisher: Quercus
Published: 2011
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 424
ISBN-13: 9781849165471
Subjects: Biography; Statesmen
Description: "Winston Churchill attracted far more criticism alive than he has since his death. He was, according to Evelyn Waugh, 'always in the wrong, surrounded by crooks, a terrible father, a radio personality'. To others, he was the saviour of the nation, even of Western civilization, 'the greatest Briton' who ever lived. Whatever one's view, Winston Churchill remains splendidly unreduced. He also remains enormous fun--a cartoonist's and caricaturist's dream on the one hand, one of the most powerful and successful statesmen in modern history on the other. Globally famed for his role as a leader during the Second World War, this study resists the temptation to conflate Churchill's post-war career with Britain's demise on the international stage. Nor does it endorse the notion that Churchill became an anachronism as he lived and continued to work, at a prodigious rate, through his seventies and eighties. As well as being Britain's most celebrated politician and war leader, Winston Churchill was a Nobel Prize-winning author. He was one of the most prolific writers of his age and his accounts of the momentous events through which he lived have indelibly marked the way in which modern British history has been conceptualized. Uniquely endowed with talent, energy and determination, Winston Churchill was, as a close wartime colleague put it, 'unlike anyone you have ever met before'. Ashley Jackson describes the contours and  contradictions of Churchill's remarkable life and career as a soldier, politician, historian, journalist, painter, amateur farmer and homemaker. From thrusting subaltern to high-flying politician, Cabinet outcast to elder statesman, this is the eternally fascinating story of Winston Churchill's appointment with destiny"--Publisher's description, p. [2] of dust jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 382-405) and index.
Table of contents: title: Landscape for a lifetime : Winston, Woodstock and Oxfordshire; title: Cadet to frontier soldier : warrior and writer; title: Pundit and politician : a rising star; title: High office : war on land and sea; title: Home and colonial : new nations, strikes and gold; title: Man of Kent : a frenzied unemployment; title: War machine : the management of global conflict; title: A higher vision : post-war government and a changing world; title: Symbol of the nation.