Winston churchill biography gilbert

The Churchill Biography.
Martin Gilbert is the official biographer of Winston Churchill and you won't read about sexual scandals, alcoholism, or hidden vices.
Born in London in 1936, Martin Gilbert was educated at Highgate School, and Magdalen College, Oxford, graduating with First Class Honours.

•

June 18, 2008

About The Official Biography

WINSTON S. CHURCHILL
by Randolph Churchill & Martin Gilbert

Churchill had long wished to write his father’s biography, and by the end of the 1950’s was making strong efforts to win his father’s confidence. In May 1960 Winston Churchill wrote to his son:

‘My dear Randolph, I have reflected carefully on what you said. I think that your biography of Derby [Lord Derby, by Randolph Churchill, Cassell: London 1959] is a remarkable work, and I should be happy that you should write my official biography when the time comes. But I must ask you to defer this until after my death. I would not like to release my papers piecemeal, and I think that you should wait for the time being and then get all your material from my own Archives and from the Trust. In any case, I do not want anything to be published until at least five years after my death. — Your loving father, Winston S. Churchill’

The first volume of Winston S. Churchill was published in 1966, the year after Sir

•

Churchill: A Life

May 10, 2018

I read the last chapter of this book (which took me over HALF A YEAR to read) while smoking a cigar. It felt necessary.

---

For a time, Great Britain stood alone against Hitler's Germany. As the mainland of Europe crumbled before the Nazi advance, the British held firm, resolved never to surrender, and Churchill, as Prime Minister, declared that "We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets."

But there was more to the speech than this frequently-quoted snippet. Referencing Churchill's notes during this period, Gilbert provides the rest of the speech, which Churchill had decided to scrub in the final minutes before his address to the House of Commons.

It continues: "We will fight the enemy back, street by street, until we have pushed them to the sea. When we
•
Churchill: A Life
Martin Gilbert's highly-acclaimed Churchill: A Life is a story of adventure. It follows Winston Churchill from his earliest days to his moments of triumph. Here, the drama and excitement of his story are ever-present, as are his tremendous qualities in peace and war, not least as an orator and as a man of vision. Gilbert gives us a vivid portrait, using Churchill's most personal letters and the recollections of his contemporaries, both friends and enemies, to go behind the scenes of some of the stormiest and most fascinating political events of our time, dominated by two world wars and culminating in the era of the Iron Curtain.