Product Description

Roy Jenkins's Churchill is an exhaustive biographical picture of one of the most enigmatic and important figures of the Twentieth Century. From the admiralty to the miner's strike, from the Battle of Britain to the Nobel Prize, Churchill's oversaw some of the most important events the World has ever seen. Roy Jenkins faithfully presents these events, while also managing to convey the contradictions and quirks in Churchill's character. In depth analysis and brilliant historical research make this a magnificent one-volume biography of an extraordinary life. In some ways a companion piece to his excellent biography of Gladstone, Churchill is packed with insights that only a fellow politician could convey.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #47462 in Books
• Published on: 2002-06-24
• Format: Audiobook
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 4
• Binding: Audio Cassette

Amazon.co.uk Review
Book buyers will never tire of reading about Winston Churchill, for "the greatest adventurer of modern political history" (RA Butler's verdict) led a life of action-packed drama and global significance. Roy Jenkins' Churchill is the latest biography of this great Briton, following closely in the tailwind of Geoffrey Best's Churchill: A Study in Greatness. Where Best restores altitude to Churchill's dipping reputation, seeing off academic critics of the last decade or so, Jenkins provides a jumbo-size old-fashioned biography, lauding his subject's achievements, sympathising with his quirks, and stepping lightly over his well-known mistakes. As he did in his earlier biographies of Dilke, Asquith and Gladstone, Jenkins sticks closely to the published record, utilising in particular the definitive researches of Martin Gilbert, but he brings the authority and the inside knowledge of British politics to his book, slipping in his own memories of Churchill, and his own comparable experience sat the Cabinet table. It is all here, from the Boer Wars to the nuclear bomb, from the hustings in Oldham to the diplomacy of Yalta, with due coverage of the big moments--at the Board of Trade and at the Admiralty in Asquith's peacetime and wartime cabinets, taking on the appeasers in the 1930s and Hitler in the 1940s. All the books are here, and all the political relationships tetchy and touchy alike, from Lloyd George to Baldwin, Smuts to Stalin, and of course, the British people. Like its subject the book is bulky and at times indulgent, but impossible not to enjoy.--Miles Taylor

About the Author
Former Home Secretary, Chancellor of the Exchequer and President of the European Commission, Roy Jenkins is currently Chancellor of Oxford University and President of the Royal Society of Literature. He was recently appointed by the government to look into proportional representation reform. His biography of Gladstone was the winner of the Whitbread Biography Award and his most recent book, Chancellors, was published to great acclaim.

Customer Reviews

A fine work worthy of a fine man.
Perhaps it takes a politician of Roy Jenkins' stature to write a work worthy of a man who was once described as "The greatest living Englishman." Whilst not an uncommon surname, the very word "Churchill" conjures up an image of one man and one man only. That man was Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill - soldier, journalist, painter, Nobel laureate, politician and leader of nations. I am not given to defacing books but I well remember being 15 years old when this great man died and going to the school library to read a short biography of his life. Directly after his name were brackets inside which was printed the year of his birth followed by a dash and a blank space reserved for the year of death. Having read the item, I carefully wrote "1965" into that blank space and closed the book.

For those who may not be unaware, Roy Jenkins was a leading British politician who, in post-war years was a fellow Member of Parliament alongside Churchill - although of a different political persuasion. In his preface, Jenkins describes having met Churchill as a boy and observing him at work in later years - although he is very careful to admit he did not know the man. With an honest and intuitive comment, he also declares his belief that a biography does not necessarily demand or even profit from such personal knowledge and that such familiarity can "distort as much as it illuminates."

Any biography should be a dispassionate account of whoever is under the microscope and should include those good, bad and even ugly aspects which combine to comprise the very qualities which made that subject exactly who and what they were. As biographies go, this is a first-class work. As a life story on Churchill, this will very probably stand the test of time to become recognised as the best ever. It really is all here; From an opening Chapter entitled; "The Brash Young Man (1874-1908)," through two world wars (Churchill was one of only two people holding ministerial office at the outbreak of both WW1 and WW2 (he was First Lord of the Admiralty on both occasions although he did hold other posts in between) and, of course the post-war years right up to 1965. In a word, this book is complete.

I always begin reading such factual works by studying the illustrations in order to get a feel for the product. In this instance, I spent almost 30 minutes just reading the captions and comparing them to the relevant image. There are 84 historic photographs arranged together in 2 areas and another selection of 12 pictures which are works of art reproduced in colour. Whilst some of these are portraits of Churchill, others reveal his own skills with a paintbrush.

This is a comprehensive work on one of the greatest statesmen of all time. Consequently, I would suggest would-be students of Churchill ensure this work is elevated to the top of their list as far as their own studies are concerned.

NM

A highly readable and informative biography
To those whose knowledge of Churchill is limited to his role in the Second World War don't be daunted by the size of this book. The book is very readable and flows very easily between the major landmarks in Churchill's life.

On the whole I enjoyed this book. Thanks to Roy Jenkins my knowledge of Churchill, especially his early years, has greatly improved. I did not realise how radical the Liberal Churchill really was. For example in the 1920's he believed the railways should be nationalised and as Home Secretary he did not believe that prison worked . As a resident of Oldham I did know Churchill was previously our local MP and I am now keen to find out more about his period.

The book takes a chronological approach to Churchill which, unlike some biographies,did not seem to hinder the analsis of the actions and decisions that Churchill took. Jenkins also managed to get the right balance between Churchill's political actions and beliefs and his personal character. I got the impression that Jenkins was keen to find out what made "Churchill tick". With a man of so many contradictions this was no easy feat!

I felt there were two main weaknesses to this book. The first was the later period of Churchill's life (post 1945). I felt that Roy Jenkins became less analytical about Churchill's reaction to the Labour Government and how he managed to rebuild the Tory party from its crushing electioral defeat in 1945. Reading this part of the book left me with many unanswered questions, for example What was Churchill's attitude towards the NHS, social security etc? How did Churchill manage to cut the Labour majority so quickly and what were the feelings of other Conservatives to his acceptance of the post war concensus?

These questions might have been addressed in a conclusion. However the lack of a conclusion was the main weakness of this book. The end was a rather disappointing paragraph from Jenkins that he thought Churchill was a better man than Gladstone. WHY? Roy Jenkins does not even attempt to analyse this statement. I think a final concluding chapter would have been an ideal place for Jenkins to have analysed Churchill's historical role and allowed him to justify his last paragraph.

Despite the disappointing end I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in finding out more about Churchill. I would recommend to Roy Jenkins that he takes a leaf out of Churchill's books and writes a further 10 pages to finish the book with a good strong conclusion.

Read with a good dictionary and a history book to hand...
How Churchill make so many costly mistakes and still be the greatest English politician of the 20th century? This book goes a long way to answer this whilst being generally a good read. RJ unveils the story with judgement and balance and obviously has a good mastery of the source material. However, there are niggles related to unecessary use of obscure vocabulary and foriegn phrases that will narrow its appeal. Also he assumes more historical background knowledge than I think is reasonable, for example he neglects to overview the Dardenelles fiasco sufficiently even though this was crucial to Churchill's early career. Also we are constantly reminded that it is RJ telling the story which comes over as self aggrandisement. This is epitomised in the last paragraph of the book when RJ grandly tells us that, having written this book, he now rates WSC higher than Gladstone. There is no analysis to back up this assertion and we are expected to accept it as a nugget of wisdom generously handed to us by the esteemed author. Still, its essential reading fans of political biography and I would not hesitate to recommend it with the above caveats.