The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Alone, 1932-1940

This is really an outstanding piece of work. For a start, it is highly readable. Extremely well written, not over poweringly statistical, easy on the eye and fast paced. The work covers Churchill's lonely years out of power in the 1930's. It then outlines his extraordinary prescience in identifying the real risks with the rise of Nazi Germany. It highlights especially his incredible personal (and lonely) determination to bring to the notice of the Governments - the first lead by Baldwin and then by Chamberlain - and his repeateded attempts to stir them into action in rearming and excercising far more caution in their dealings with Hitler. What I found particularly intereting was the absolutley appalling conduct of both prime ministers. Baldwin's blatant, cynical, obstinacy and obsession with appeasement lead to him publicly admitting, finally, that he had put his party before country. He had even deliberately lied/mislead Parliament about the risks in Europe, simply in order to secure his re-election. It exposes his conceit, vanity and self interest, and in incredible detail. Following Baldwin, the book moves on to Chamberlain. The poor conduct of Chamberlain is perhaps better known. His utter arrogance, stubborness and vainglorious manner in pursuing appeasement is beyond belief. However, unusually - but interestingly, this book fully exposes his cohorts, especially Halifax ( foreign secretary) Wilson, the civil servant/cabinet secratary and unelected "advisor" to Chamberlain. Refreshingly it excoriates the misconduct of Henderson, the arch-nazi sympathiser and appeaser, who served as the British ambassador to Germany. These people are clearly shown to be liars, deceivers, fools and schemers. That these people were then never, ever, brought fully to account at the outbreak of war, is appalling and reflects poorly on the establishment of public school, upper class politicians at this time. After the invasion of Poland and the losses of more than 100,000 innocent Polish civilians in air raids, Halifax was STILL holding out for the chance to negotiate a "peace with honour"settlement with Hitler! In fact, he would have happily given away part of the Empire if it meant Britain was left untouched by Hitler. Unbelievable!! The book vividly highlights the utter contempt held by Chamberlain and Halifax (especially), towards the Cezch peoples, Poles and those from the lowland countries of Europe. On public record, Chamberlain readily admitted to his limited knowledge of these peoples and indeed almost every other country in the world. Even Baldwin his predecessor, admitted the same lack of interest and knowledge of foreign affairs. Yet BOTH These Prime Ministers insisted on taking a personal lead in Anglo-French, German and eastern european countries. This book really damming of these two leaders and their fawning sychophantic cabinet members, very few of whom escape this authors exposure of their miserable, pathetic performance. The contempt held by these men for Churchill is also brought sharply to the readers attention. This book is comprehensive, but very readable. It does not attempt to cover Churchill's many flaws. It is not a another piece of Churchillian glorification. It recognises well his determination, stubborness his fanciful ideas - some bordering on recklessness. But it also highlights the man's true greatness. He THE man for the times, of that there can be no doubt. The book stirs the readers blood in its condemnation of the incompetence of British politicians and pre-war leaders, with their incredibly blinkered, head-in-the sand attitude to develpoments in Europe - and their implications for Britain and its Empire. Their failure to look above the parapet so very nearly cost Britain the war. I strongly recommend this book to anyone with even a passing interest in the events prior to the start of WW2. One cautionary point - the grammar in this work is APPALLING! The punctuation looks like someone threw a bucket of commas at it. It is so bad that towards the end of this excellent work, the reader could easily oget slightly irritated by the constant misapplication of the comma. The book has a surprising number of spelling mistakes, too. That aside, this book is an exceptional piece of highly researched, enjoyable, writing.

A well researched work on this most complex of men. It gives a detailed, entertaining insight to the private and the public life of WSC when he was almost a loan voice crying in the wilderness, stating the obvious about what was happening in Germany, and the perils of Hitler and the Nazis, which most politicians, and many of the population not just of Britain, but the wider world that had fought the Great Was would rather ignore. Recommended reading for history scholar and anybody else trying to make sense of the past hundred years.

An important part of an even more important series and difficult to find so well done Mega

saving mainly for my boating trip, but the first 20 pages are illuminating

Very good

the two volumes of mr manchester on churchill made churchill being known by millions. true but historical mistakes exists in this book. you want to really know sir winsto. the go to geoffrey best. finally vol 3 will be perharps published in 2008 after a 20years hiatus

WELL SATISFIED AND HAPPY

I wasnt the product it claimed it was.