CROWN The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz

A quick read. Nice glimpse into the times when Churchill came into power & how he handled leadership responsibilities in a difficult time for England.

This is a well told story with some new aspects that I haven't seen before. This is a story that has been told many times, of the events to knock Great Britain out of WW II using air power - The Blitz as it has been described. I've read a good number of books on this topic as well as most of the major sources around Winston Churchill. I was pleased to see a new view of the historic events described from a different perspective with several story arcs tying the facts to what people were experiencing. The story mostly focuses on those close to Churchill with some additional material from diarists and minor embellishment to the facts around some of the many lives lost - much more interesting to get some minor feel for a person than to learn of their death as another number. I enjoyed finding that the title comes from paraphrasing a diarist's entry and it was fun to find it and remember reading their memoirs many years ago. It builds on works previously published, using first source material and keeping the major events in place while adding a new look at some of the more mundane aspects of life to deliver a story that shows the ordinary and extraordinary coexisting against the backdrop of war. The sources, bibliography and index were excellent. Despite the many story arcs presented, I had no problem keeping it straight over the intermittent reading of the story. A very satisfying read.

I found this book riveting and loved the multiple perspectives provided by the sources (letters, speeches, diaries). It is so well written and I learned so much I didn’t know about England in World War II. Highly recommend.

Very interesting book well written as are all his books. I wish history books had been like this when I was at school!

Another book on the Blitz etc? Yes but... very well researched and written. Has a different angle which immerses the reader in the events and how the central characters lived through it. I really enjoyed this book.

Winston Churchill was, arguably, one of the more extraordinary figures of modern British history. His life covered parts of two centuries wherein he was, variously, a journalist, politician, soldier, author and prime minister. Erik Larson’s “The Splendid and the Vile” focusses on a brief but compelling period of Churchill’s long life; namely, the first year of his prime ministership. By and large, this was a period of many failures as Britain (and its empire) stood alone against the Nazi threat. It was also the period when Churchill was at his most pugnacious. He was the man for the occasion. Perhaps no other Briton could have stood in his place. As a work of history, the book reads almost as a thriller. It certainly captured this reader’s attention…and held it! The book is an intimate portrayal of Churchill’s life. We are introduced to his family, his daily troubles, his failures and his (comparatively few) triumphs. If I was to find one criticism of the book it’s that the politics of the time was largely ignored. Clement Atlee receives only one mention and that on the book’s penultimate page. But this aside, the book is a riveting read and a significant addition to the seemingly endless library of Churchill books. Recommended.