Product Description

A memoir of Winston Churchill. It contains extracts from the candid diaries of Churchill's doctor Lord Moran, his devoted friend and confidant, revealing how the great man faced up to and absorbed the strain of events during the war years, the tremendous burden of his responsibilities, and his extraordinary resolution. Moran's keen observation, sensitivity, truth and insight should shed light on Churchill's conduct and personality. We hear of his weaknesses as well as his strengths: his rages, his jokes and salty comments, his occasional foolishness, and his rare cattiness. Moran also records details of other world figures, as well as the historic events in which Churchill played so momentous a part. This volume also contains an introduction by Lord Moran's son.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #143891 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-24
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 428 pages

Review
'Not only is it Churchill who emerges as a full and rich human character from these diaries. Lord Moran, met, with Churchill, all the great men of the Western Alliance, watched them, and pinned them down in his pages. Whether he is discussing Stalin or Bernard Baruch, he always has something new, something wise, something memorable to say.' - Saturday Review; 'This is Churchill in his slippers, off-guard. But how little history would tell us if its great figures were shown only in their public attitudes!' - Daily Express; 'It will be long before the controversy over this astonishing book dies down; and when it does, its record as a portrait of a great spirit will stand out even more clearly.' - Sunday Times

Customer Reviews

Portrait of a "magnetic, monstrous, oddly lovable man"
Those who share my high regard for Martin Gilbert's and then Roy Jenkins' comprehensive biographies as well as John Keegan's brief but insightful biography of Winston Churchill (within the "Penguin Lives" series) will gratefully welcome Lord Moran's discussion of Churchill during World War Two. His access was direct and unlimited, serving as Churchill's personal physician until his death on January 24, 1965. According to Lord Moran, shortly after the war ended, G.M. Trevelyan strongly encouraged him to record his thoughts and feelings about Churchill as well as anecdotes which otherwise would have been lost. Thus began a process which continued until 1966, a year after Churchill's death, when Lord Moran published an 850-page memoir. Much of that volume has been reprinted in this new edition.

Having read and then re-read the three previously cited biographies, I already knew a great deal about Churchill's life and career. Of greatest interest to me in this volume are the anecdotes, dozens and dozens of them, which reveal Churchill the man in ways and to an extent not previously indicated by other authors. Many of these anecdotes suggest that the Churchill was an especially "difficult" patient, one almost totally lacking in patience. Over time, he had several health problems which even his epic will power could not overcome: a number of heart attacks, three pneumonias, two strokes, one abdominal operation, a hernia, deafness, and a virulent skin disease as well as countless minor ailments. Refusing to reduce (much less eliminate) his daily consumption of cigars and alcohol certainly didn't help, nor did the quick cures of quacks whom Churchill insisted on retaining. Because of quite legitimate concerns about Churchill's health, therefore, Lord Moran accompanied him on numerous trips, recording his own opinions of dozens of contemporaries such as Roosevelt, Stalin, Atlee, Eden, and Truman. These comments leave no doubt that Lord Moran was a keen observer and a shrewd judge of other people.

Alistair Cooke once said of Churchill that he "told a listless nation it was heroic, and it became so." Perhaps you are already familiar with Churchill the public figure. In this lively and informative volume, Lord Moran enables you to take Churchill's measure as (in Cooke's words) a "magnetic, monstrous, oddly lovable man."