The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Vol. 3: Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965

William Manchester; Paul Reid

ISBN 10: 1470819538 ISBN 13: 9781470819538

Publisher: Blackstone Publishing, 2012

Synopsis

[Read by Clive Chafer ]

More than twenty years in the making -- this is the third and final volume of William Manchester's biography of Winston Spencer Churchill. The Last Lion presents a revelatory and unparalleled portrait of this brilliant, flawed, and dynamic leader. This is popular history at its most stirring.

Spanning the years 1940 to 1965, Defender of the Realm, the third volume of William Manchester's The Last Lion, picks up shortly after Winston Churchill became prime minister -- when his tiny island nation stood alone against the overwhelming might of Nazi Germany. The Churchill portrayed by Manchester and Reid is a man of indomitable courage, lightning-fast intellect, and an irresistible will to action. This volume brilliantly recounts how Churchill organized his nation's military response and defense, compelled President Roosevelt to support America's beleaguered cousins, and personified the ''never surrender'' ethos that helped the Allies win the war, while at the same time adapting himself and his country to the inevitable shift of world power from the British Empire to the United States.

About this title

About the Author:

WILLIAM MANCHESTER (1922-2004) was an award-winning American author, biographer, and historian and a professor emeritus of history at Wesleyan University. Among his many New York Times bestselling books are Goodbye Darkness and The Last Lion, a three-volume biography of Winston Churchill.

PAUL REID is an award-winning journalist. In late 2003 his friend, William Manchester, in failing health, asked Paul to complete The Last Lion: Defender of the Realm. He lives in North Carolina.

From Booklist:

*Starred Review* The second volume of the late Manchester’s Churchill biography (The Last Lion: Alone, 1988) left its audience in suspense with Churchill’s appointment as British prime minister in May 1940 and in anticipation of how Manchester would present Churchill’s and Britain’s finest hour in WWII. Foiled by illness, Manchester tapped Paul Reid, who has magnificently completed Manchester’s work. Opening with a character sketch of Churchill in his multifaceted guises of sentimentality, egotistical insensitivity, and brilliance, Reid dives into Churchill’s war leadership in 1940 that is the cynosure of his place in history. Reid’s got the research right, down to the day, down to the minute. He shows Churchill defying Hitler and appeasers––the French leadership and figures in the British government––who even in 1940 thought peace could be arranged with the triumphant Nazis. As Reid chronicles Churchill’s public speeches, communications, and strategy sessions, he affords regular glimpses at Churchill’s private aspects—his wittiness, sybaritic consumption of scotch and cigars, and moods bordering on depression. If reading Churchill’s life after 1945 entails an unavoidably anticlimactic quality, Reid nevertheless ably chronicles its main events of writing his WWII memoirs and assuming his second premiership of 1951–55. Manchester was one of the best Churchill biographers, and this capstone to his magnum opus ought not be missed. --Gilbert Taylor

About this edition

• Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1470819538
• ISBN 13: 9781470819538
• Binding: Audio CD
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 42