The splendid and the vile: a saga of Churchill, family, and defiance during the Blitz

Erik Larson shows, in cinematic detail, how Winston 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, his wife, Clementine, their youngest daughter, Mary, 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. This book 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.