A fresh and compelling portrait of Winston Churchill and London during the Blitz!
I've had a lot more time to read these past few weeks, so I have been browsing Barnes and Noble much more frequently. I was really intrigued by the description of The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson as I have always been a fan of history. I can't wait to dive into this novel and check it out for myself.
As stated on the Barnes and Noble website, the summary for The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz is:
"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.
The Splendid and the Vile takes readers out of today’s political dysfunction and back to a time of true leadership, when, in the face of unrelenting horror, Churchill’s eloquence, courage, and perseverance bound a country, and a family, together."
If anyone else is interested in checking out the book The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson, click the image up above!
Pros:
- Written by a New York Times bestselling author, the author of The Devil in the White City and Dead Wake
- A compelling look at Winston Churchill and London during the Blitz
- Signed edition
Bottom Line:
I can't wait to read this novel! I hope it is as good as all the reviews say it is.
Tags:
The Splendid and the Vile, A Saga of Churchill, Book, Novel, Winston Churchill, The Blitz, Erik Larson, Barnes and Noble,
