Winston Churchill (1874-1965) is often proclaimed as the greatest Briton in history and one of the world's eminent leaders. Born into a dazzling political family, Churchill was awkward and eccentric as a young man but flourished in the army, where he served in the North West Frontier, Sudan and during the Second Boer War as a successful war correspondent. As a politician he was brash and petulant, but succeeded in holding most of the major offices of state, acting as Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer as well as First Lord of the Admiralty and Secretary of State for War.On the resignation of Neville Chamberlain in 1940, Churchill became Prime Minister and led Britain through one of its darkest moments. Charismatic and adventurous, egotistical, visionary and unconventional, Churchill was an enigma, his life one of paradox. A child of his time, the years of his life spanned two world wars and the rise and fall of the Victorian British Empire. His death marked the end of a British era which gave way to the American century. In this, the definitive biography, Norman Rose brilliantly illuminates the man behind the myth, producing a fresh, balanced and incisive portrait of an extraordinary life and of the legacy that remains undimmed to this day.
