Martin Gilbert

Sir Martin’s reflections after finishing the final narrative volume are reprised as Hillsdale completes the final document volume in the Great Biography.

No evidence exists that Churchill wished to commit a million Allied troops. The British contingent he envisioned was small, and made up of volunteers. Above all, Churchill wanted decision, not hesitation, which he abhorred all his life.

It is a tribute to this book, and those who saw it into print, that a memory of two unforgettable spirits is so eloquently presented.

"My panic was genuine. I felt I had no qualifications whatever to attempt a Titan. Thoughts of the friendliness in Churchill’s voice fled. Robert Hardy was to climb Everest in everyday clothes with an Ordnance Map."

Remarks by Randolph S. Churchill, Winston Churchill's great-grandson, at a dinner hosted by Hillsdale College on 14 June 2019 in celebration of the completion of the Official Biography of Sir Winston Churchill. The biography was begun in 1962 by Churchill's son, Randolph, and continued by Martin Gilbert until 2012, when Larry P. Arnn of Hillsdale College was appointed editor.

G.C.B Dodds, a private secretary in 1944, recalls Churchill’s energy, fearlessness and pugnacity, and an uncomfortable moment over de Gaulle.