Description
In A.J.P.Taylor’s words, Churchill was ‘the saviour of his country’ when he became prime minister in 1940.
Yet he was also a deeply flawed character. Giving due credit to Churchill’s achievements but making no secret of his failures, Geoffrey Wheatcroft takes a radically different approach to other biographies.
Going far beyond a reappraisal of a life and a career, he reveals the complex shadow Churchill has cast over post-war British history and contemporary politics.
Telling the story of Churchill’s extraordinary life and the equally fascinating one of his legacy, Churchill’s Shadow focuses on how we as a nation have been living in the grip of his self-written myth ever since his death.
‘This is the indispensable biography of Churchill for the post-Brexit 2020s’ – David Kynaston
‘Wheatcroft is a skilled prosecutor with a rapier pen…this could be the best single-volume indictment of Churchill yet written’ – New York Times
‘A clear-eyed, incisive and superbly balanced account of Churchill, the man and the myth’ – Robert Gildea
‘Stimulating, erudite and above all entertaining…for any reader tired of the seemlingly endless round of Churchill-worship’ – Robert Harris
