The splendid and the vile: a saga of Churchill, family, and defiance during the Blitz
(Large Print)

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.