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The book provides “a short, accessible and analytical introduction to key themes in Churchill’s life [that] reflect cutting edge scholarship.” But several books do that better [...]. This book does not offer much that is new, and lacks editorial unity. Some authors cover the same ground, variously agreeing or contending, with no cross-references or attempts to contrast their opinions.

Undoubtedly the ​constituency work of MPs has changed since Churchill’s time​. Communications and awareness are vastly enhanced nowadays. But if the honorable Member is suggesting ​that Churchill was too much an aristocrat to concern himself with ​common ​people, she ​needs to ​further her education.

Against the background of the retreat and escape of the British and French Armies, Korda poses the trial of strength between Halifax and Churchill. His not entirely novel thesis is that Churchill’s position of no truck with Hitler would have been untenable had the Dunkirk evacuation not been seen as a success in Britain. Like Churchill, Korda does not call it a success. But he offers Montgomery’s words to describe Britain’s mood. Escapees wore “a coloured embroidered patch on their sleeve with the title ‘Dunkirk.’ They thought they were heroes, and the civilian public thought so. It was not understood that the British Army had suffered a crushing defeat.”

It is useful to study Churchill and the Baltic for what it can teach us today about powerful aggressors and the fate of small nations. In wartime negotiations, the Soviets were consistent. They made the most extreme demands, offering little in exchange. If the demands were met, more followed. Whenever the other side said they would not agree, an eleventh-hour shift by Moscow would result. Even this was not a defeat, since the democracies were often so grateful for evidence of good will that they would struggle to meet the next round of demands. The perceptive Churchill once told Eden, “do not be disappointed if you are not able to bring home a joint public declaration.”93

Return with us now to the crucial period September 1943 to April 1944. The prior volume, One Continent Redeemed, saw Africa cleared of Axis forces. Here the scene shifts to the invasion of Italy and planning for the Normandy landings, while the United States slowly expands operations in the Far East and Pacific, and the “Big Three” meet for the first time at Teheran.

King George V succeeded to the throne upon the death of his father, Edward VII, in May 1910. In February that year, Winston Churchill became Home Secretary. To this day he remains the youngest such since Sir Robert Peel in 1822. Roy Jenkins described the Home Office as a “plank of wood” from which many other departments have since been carved. In 1910, however, the Home Office held vast authority over domestic affairs. Among these was the prison system, where Churchill supported reform and reduction of sentences.

Churchill’s impulse to be “on the scene” where battles took place was not uniformly applauded. During World War II, his frequent excursions to various fronts worried his supporters, and caused critics to complain that he was taking unnecessary risk. Criticism mounted when Churchill hied to France only six days after D-Day.  He revisited the front several times through March 1945.

There was no more enigmatic figure in Churchill’s life than Brendan Bracken, who cloaked his birth and upbringing with mystery while hinting broadly that he was the great man’s illegitimate son. It is well-authenticated that close friendship, not errant fatherhood, encompassed their relationship. But Churchill, with characteristic impishness, apparently never gave the direct lie to Bracken’s implied claim. This annoyed Churchill’s wife and peeved his son, Randolph, who spoke satirically of  “my brother, the bastard.” To quell the noisome rumor Churchill quipped: “I have looked the matter up, but the dates don’t coincide.”

Churchill had valid reasons to favour the raid on Dieppe. Principally, the Prime Minister wanted to attempt to take pressure off the Russian front. But for planning and conduct of the raid he had to rely on his military and naval experts. Clearly their plan suffered from insufficient due diligence.  Many disparate components needed to mesh for success. This was unrealistic. Together with shortcomings by the naval component, and communication problems, the result was inevitable.

John Harte is preparing a five-volume series on Churchill’s life. He has already surpassed de Mendelssohn and Morgan with these two. Additional volumes will cover Churchill’s early years (to 1940) and his final two decades. A volume on British spy Sidney Reilly (dubbed, somewhat incongruously, Churchill’s Spy) will follow.

Winston Churchill had met Jan Christian Smuts when he returned from the Boer War in 1900. Elected to Parliament at the end of that year, he never again visited South Africa. Yet that country was to play an important part in his life for the next fifty years.

Werner Vogt has identified an unplumbed aspect of the saga with a well-documented account of Churchill’s encounters with Switzerland: “Winston Churchill und die Schweiz” (Zürich: Verlag Neue Züricher Zeitung, 2015)