The Splendid and the Vile

Release Date:- 2020-02-25

Reviews Counts:- 3718

User Average Rating:- 4.5

Availability:- In Stock

Kind:- ebook

$12.99

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ā€¢ The author of The Devil in the White City and Dead Wake delivers an intimate chronicle of Winston Churchill and London during the Blitzā€”an inspiring portrait of courage and leadership in a time of unprecedented crisis
 
ā€œOne of [Erik Larsonā€™s] best books yet . . . perfectly timed for the moment.ā€ā€”Time ā€¢ ā€œA bravura performance by one of Americaā€™s greatest storytellers.ā€ā€”NPR 
 
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review ā€¢ Time ā€¢ Vogue ā€¢ NPR ā€¢ The Washington Post ā€¢ Chicago Tribune ā€¢ The Globe & Mail ā€¢ Fortune ā€¢ Bloomberg ā€¢ New York Post ā€¢ The New York Public Library ā€¢ Kirkus Reviews ā€¢ LibraryReads ā€¢ PopMatters

On Winston Churchillā€™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 allyā€”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 ā€œthe art of being fearless.ā€ It is a story of political brinkmanship, but itā€™s also an intimate domestic drama, set against the backdrop of Churchillā€™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 reportsā€”some released only recentlyā€”Larson provides a new lens on Londonā€™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 parentsā€™ wartime protectiveness; their son, Randolph, and his beautiful, unhappy wife, Pamela; Pamelaā€™s illicit lover, a dashing American emissary; and the advisers in Churchillā€™s ā€œSecret Circle,ā€ to whom he turns in the hardest moments.
 
The Splendid and the Vile takes readers out of todayā€™s political dysfunction and back to a time of true leadership, when, in the face of unrelenting horror, Churchillā€™s eloquence, courage, and perseverance bound a country, and a family, together.

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