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206 pages

English

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Description

Penetrating . . . beautifully rounds out and humanizes the character of the greatest statesman of the twentieth century. —San Francisco Chronicle

"A multifaceted gem, sparkling with anecdotes and insights about the nature of biography, the challenges and rewards of historical research, and of course Winston Churchill." —Richmond Times-Dispatch

"Everything about Winston Churchill is extraordinary. During his excavation of his subject, Martin Gilbert has discovered many gems. In this book he holds some of the most gorgeous jewels up to the light for us to admire." —The Spectator

"Gilbert here gives us Churchill's vast humanity with the politics largely left out. Readers daunted by the 8,000-odd pages of the official life should start here. They will love it." —The Times (London)

"The portrait of Winston Churchill is . . . vivid and painted with an affection and humour that rarely appear in the official biography." —London Daily Telegraph.
"The work [Gilbert] has done puts all historians of the twentieth century, and all students of Churchill, incalculably in his debt." —London Sunday Telegraph

Sujets

Historical

Lettres et linguistique

Biography

Prime minister

Martin Gilbert

Autobiography

Churchill

Winston Churchill

Informations

Publié par	Turner Publishing Company
Date de parution	01 février 1997
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781620459119
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,1000€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

IN SEARCH OF CHURCHILL
THE CHURCHILL BIOGRAPHY

Volume I: Youth 1874–1900 by Randolph S. Churchill
Volume I: Companion (in two parts)
Volume II: Young Statesman 1900–1914 by Randolph S. Churchill
Volume II: Companion ((in two parts)
Volume III: 1914–1916 by Martin Gilbert
Volume III Companion (in two parts)
Volume IV: 1917–1922 by Martin Gilbert
Volume IV: Companion (in two parts)
Volume V: 1922–1939 by Martin Gilbert
Volume V: Companion ‘The Exchequer Years’ 1922–1929
Volume V: Companion ‘The Wilderness Years’ 1929–1935
Volume V: Companion ‘The Coming of War’ 1936–1939
Volume VI: ‘Finest Hour’ 1939–1941 by Martin Gilbert
Volume VI: Companion ‘At the Admirait/1939–1940
Volume VI: Companion ‘Never Surrender’ May-December 1940
Volume VII: ‘Road to Victory’ 1941–1945 by Martin Gilbert
Volume VIII: ‘Never Despair’ 1945–1965 by Martin Gilbert
OTHER BOOKS BY MARTIN GILBERT

The Appeasers (with Richard Gott)
The European Powers, 1900–1945
The Roots of Appeasement
Atlas of British Charities
Recent History Atlas
American History Atlas
Jewish History Atlas
First World War Atlas
Russian History Atlas
The Arab-Israeli Conflict: Its History in Maps
Sir Horace Rumbold: Portrait of a Diplomat
Churchill: A Photographic Portrait
Jerusalem Illustrated History Atlas
Jerusalem: Rebirth of a City
Exile and Return: The Struggle for Jewish Statehood
Children’s Illustrated Bible Atlas
Auschwitz and the Allies
Atlas of the Holocaust
The Jews of Hope: the Plight of Soviet Jewry Today
Shcharansky: Hero of Our Time
The Holocaust: The Jewish Tragedy
First World War
Second World War
Churchill: A Life
EDITIONS OF DOCUMENTS

Britain and Germany Between the Wars
Plough My Own Furrow: The Life of Lord Allen of Hurtwood
Servant of India: Diaries of the Viceroy’s Private Secretary, 1905–1910
IN SEARCH OF CHURCHILL
A historian’s journey
MARTIN GILBERT
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert. All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York
First published in Great Britain in 1994 by HarperCollins Publishers
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 750-4744. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158-0012, (212) 850-6011, fax (212) 850-6008, email: PERMREQ@WILEY.COM .
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Gilbert, Martin, 1936-
In search of Churchill : a historian’s journey / by Martin Gilbert.
p. cm.
Includes index.
Originally published: London : Harper Collins, 1994.
ISBN 0-471-13229-2 (cloth : alk. cloth)
ISBN 0-471-18072-6 (paper : alk. paper)
1. Churchill, Winston, Sir, 1874–1965. 2. Great Britain—History—20th century—Historiography. 3. Prime ministers—Great Britain—Biography—Authorship. 4. Biography as a literary form.
I. Title.
DA566.9.C5G4475    1996
941.084′92—dc20                                   95-19507
Set in Linotron Janson by Rowland Phototypesetting Ltd, Bury St Edmonds, Suffolk, Great Britain
CONTENTS

List of Illustrations

List of Maps

Preface

     I      ‘First Steps’

    II      ‘The Beast of Bergholt’

   III      ‘Box On!’

    IV      The Dardanelles

     V      The Muse of Painting

    VI      Soldiers and Soldiering

   VII      The Inhabited Wilderness

VIII      ‘Mr Deakin to Dine and Sleep’

    IX      ‘God’s Teeth, Girl!’

     X      Private Secretaries

    XI      ‘A Loving, Generous Father’

   XII      ‘Genius and Plod’

XIII      Diaries and Diarists

   XIV     Harold Macmillan

    XV     Harold Wilson

   XVI     ‘Dear Mr Gilbert’

XVII     Inkwells of Gold

XVIII     Chartwell

   Maps

   Index
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Between pages 146 and 147
   1. Churchill, his wife, the Queen and Prince Philip
   2. Randolph Churchill at Stour
   3. John Profumo at Carthage
   4. Churchill, his son, grandson and Aristotle Onassis
   5. Paul Maze reminiscing
   6. Madame Planche in her estaminet
   7. The author with the owner of Burnt Out Farm
   8. Jock McDavid at Ploegsteert
   9. Edmund Hakewill Smith at Ploegsteert
10. Francis Napier-Clavering at Ploegsteert
11. Emery Reves and Churchill in Paris
12. Professor Frederick Lindemann, later Lord Cherwell
13. Major Sir Desmond Morton
14. Churchill, Bill Deakin and Sarah Churchill reach Morocco
15. Maurice Ashley
16. Squadron Leader Charles Torr Anderson
17. Ralph Wigram with Churchill at Chartwell
18. Captain Gordon Allen RN, with Churchill and Rufus, Chartwell
19. Lettice Fisher at work with Churchill, Westminster by-election
20. Violet Pearman at the Château d’Horizon near Cannes
21. Kathleen Hill leaving Morpeth Mansions with Churchill
22. Eric Seal leaving the Admiralty building with Churchill
23. Churchill’s wartime Private Office at 10 Downing Street
24. Churchill in uniform
25. Churchill with Jane Montague Browne, a young diarist
26. Harold Macmillan and ‘the case of the busy Premier’
27. Gilbert Lushington, one of Churchill’s pre-1914 flying instructors
28. Churchill’s below-ground bedroom at the Cabinet War Rooms
29. Churchill and General Montgomery in Normandy
30. Churchill and General Alexander on the Italian Front
31. Stefan Lorant and Churchill in the dining-room at Chartwell
32. ‘Now they listen to Churchill,’ Picture Post , 25 February 1939
33. Churchill’s bedroom at Chartwell
34. A heating system designed to serve as an air-raid shelter
35. The butterfly house at Chartwell, empty of its captives
36. Churchill’s bust of the sculptor Oscar Nemon
37. Churchill’s studio: the armchair and portrait of his father
LIST OF MAPS
1. Great Britain
2. London and the South-East
3. Whitehall
4. France
5. The Western Front
PHOTOGRAPHIC CREDITS
I am grateful to those who, over the years, have lent me photographs or given me permission to use photographs of which they are the copyright holders. For this volume I would like to thank United Press International (photograph 1), Paul Maze (5), Mark Cousins (7), Major-General Sir Edmund Hakewill Smith (9), Avis Napier-Clavering (10), John Harvey (12), Sir Desmond Morton (13), Churchill College, Cambridge (140), Maurice Ashley (15), Charles Torr Anderson (16), Ava, Viscountess Waverley (17), Time Life (18), Press Association (21, 22), Professor William E. Beatty (24), Lady Sargant (25), Scotsman (26), Mrs Airlie Madden (27), George Ranee (28), Viscount Montgomery of Alamein (29), Viscount Alexander of Tunis (30), Stefan Lorant (31), Picture Post (32), and David Gilbert (33, 34, 35, 36, 37). I have also used two of my own photographs (2, 6).
PREFACE
This book traces some of my travels and discoveries in search of Churchill since 1962. The process of finding out about any historical character can be a surprising one. All biographers who embark on the search find themselves caught up in many adventures and are continually amazed by the diverse ways in which they reach their goal of understanding. In this book I share some of my experiences, in the hope that they may be of interest or amusement, and that something further will emerge from them of the character, struggles and achievements of Churchill himself.
Innumerable people play a part in the quest for a single character. Not a week has gone by since I began my work when I have not written to some individual or archive to seek help on a point of detail. Their responses have seldom failed me. Many people shared their knowledge with me, or helped to elucidate matters that had puzzled me.
Among the objects of my research were several aspects of Churchill’s supposed character that have become the focus of considerable speculation or dogma: among them his depressions, his drinking, his love of war, his not infrequent roughness to his staff and secretaries, and the lust for adventure that led to the Dardanelles. There were also topics that people expressed curiosity about, including his sources of secret information during the wilderness years in the 1930s, and his painting. In addition, there were relatively unknown aspects of his character that emerged as I worked: for instance his generosity, his love of nature and his sense of fun.
My own journey began in 1962 when I became a research assistant to Churchill’s son Randolph, who had just embarked on his father’s biography. After Randolph’s death in 1968 I was asked to continue his work and was fortunate to be able to call, as he had done, upon research help. One of my researchers, Susie Sacher stayed on: we were married and worked side by side on every file of the Churchill papers until the eighth volume, Never Despair , was completed in 1988. Work on another aspect of the biography begun by Randolph, the Churchill document volumes, continues. The At The Admiralty document volume, covering September 1939 to May 1940, was published in 1993.
Among those who helped with comments and advice for this book, or who filled factual gaps large and small, were Jonathan Aitken, Alex Allan, Jean Broome, Grace Hamblin, Sir John Peck,