Eminent Churchillians by Andrew Roberts (English) Paperback Book

Description: FREE SHIPPING UK WIDE Eminent Churchillians by Andrew Roberts An account of the Churchill years with sensational revelations. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description This highly praised book by the Wolfson History Prize-winning author of SALISBURY tackles six aspects of Churchilliana and uncovers a plethora of disturbing facts about wartime and post-war Britain. His revelations include: - The case for the impeachment of Lord Mountbatten - The Nazi sympathies of Sir Arthur Bryant, hitherto considered a patriotic historian - The British establishments doubt about Churchills role after Dunkirk - The appeasement of the trade unions in Churchills Indian summer - The inside story of black immigration in the early 1950s - The anti-Churchill stance adopted by the Royal Family in 1940 Author Biography Andrew Roberts took a first in Modern History at Gonville & Caius, Cambridge. He won the Wolfson History prize for his biography, Salisbury: Victorian Titan. He writes and reviews regularly in the press. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Review An elegantly written, thought-provoking book...an essential reappraisal of British myths since 1939 * THE TIMES *A book of quite exceptional quality...Roberts resembles Strachey in his iconoclasm, and in the brilliance of his writing * SUNDAY TELEGRAPH *The best sort of history - revealing, gossipy and acidulous * INDEPENDENT *Not since A J P Taylor gave his legendary lectures on the origins of the Second World War has an historical study given me such intellectual and aesthetic satisfaction -- John Torode * INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY * Promotional Andrew Roberts is one of Britains foremost historians Eminent Churchillians spent almost two months on the Sunday Times bestseller list Hitler and Churchill was also a Sunday Times Bestseller Andrew Roberts won the James Stern Silver Pen Prize for Non-Fiction and was the Joint Winner of the Wolfson Prize for History An elegantly written, thought-provoking book...an essential reappraisal of British myths since 1939 The Times A book of quite exceptional quality...Roberts resembles Strachey in his iconoclasm, and in the brilliance of his writing Sunday Telegraph The best sort of history - revealing, gossipy and acidulous Independent Not since A J P Taylor gave his legendary lectures on the origins of the Second World War has an historical study given me such intellectual and aesthetic satisfaction John Torode, Independent on Sunday Kirkus UK Review This was first published in 1994 and is the 4th impression. To those who subscribe to government gloss it must come as a revelation. The Churchillians referred to are not supporters of Churchill but, those who made his life difficult. There are six chapters, the vitriolic attack on Sir Arthur Bryant reveals that it is not quite an impartial account and indeed anyone who rates A. L. Rowse as a competent historian needs to be treated with caution. The first chapter relates to appeasement and King George VI who is shown as a good ceremonial monarch but a hopeless moron when it comes to exercising his prerogative of advising on constitutional matters. As can be expected the chapter also touches on the Duke of Windsor on whom the author cannot make up his mind. The next chapter relates to Lord Mountbatten. It is impossible to read this chapter without realising what a disastrous egotistical poser he was; a man who distorted facts to claim merit he did not deserve, and to place blame, which he did, on the shoulders of others. His inept handling of Partition condemned hundreds of thousands of innocent people to death and created a hatred, which still lingers between India and Pakistan. The third chapter is the most astonishing. It shows how the Tory establishment strove unremittingly to unseat Churchill before he took over the leadership of the Tory party. The extent of the movement for appeasement with Hitler is truly astonishing. Next we learn something interesting; that whereas Churchill was quite prepared to take instantaneous decisions on minor problems, he sought consensus from his colleagues on major ones. One of the major ones was the immigration, which started with the Caribbean. Churchill early recognised the need for some control. Not so his colleagues, who lacked his perception and never came to a decision. Now we come to Sir Walter Monkton, who yielded to every demand made by the Trade Unions. We also learn the extraordinary extent of strikes, which bedevilled production throughout World War II. We have mentioned Sir Arthur Bryant already but the hero of the book has to be Sir Winston Churchill who, in his single-minded pursuit of victory, wore himself out and also reduced his capacity to govern at the end of the war. For him, nothing mattered but his country and in this he spoke for the common man. One cannot help feel that Sir Walter Monkton was successful because Churchill, despite being a Conservative, felt deeply for the injustices of the pay system. We forget that he started as a Liberal and that it was he who instigated the Beveridge Report and thus the NHS. Nor should we forget that presented with the leadership of the Conservative party, Churchill so devoted his activities to winning the war that he made no use of his position to strengthen the standing of the party, whereas the Deputy Prime Minister, Clement Attlee, never ceased to do so on behalf of the Labour Party. This is a difficult book to read and the print is far too small but anyone concerned with the impact of politics and jockeying for position on the life of the country ought to read this book. There are many lessons to be learned from it. (Kirkus UK) Kirkus US Review In a wearyingly carping exercise in Lytton Strachey - like iconoclasm, British freelance journalist Roberts (The Holy Fox, 1991, not reviewed) exposes the heroes of the period of Britains imperial decline as grandiloquent fools and knaves, appeasers and apologists for various forms of authoritarianism, and purblind racists. In the summer of 1940, when Winston Churchill - previously regarded as a political failure - assumed leadership, parliamentary Conservatives continued to distrust him. The extent of their distrust, and the lengths to which Churchill had to go to propitiate those who regarded him as unfit to lead the nation, tend to be widely forgotten today. Roberts delights in showing Churchills feet of clay, from his often sensitive relationships with pro-Chamberlain Conservatives to his embarrassingly overt racism (a fault, after all, that he shared with many contemporaries who, like him, were ardent British imperialists). In addition, Roberts assembles a small rogues gallery of contemporary figures who in his view presided over Britains decline with incompetence, indifference, and outright villainy. Among these are Lord Mountbatten, who emerges as a posturing, egocentric humbug whose love of swift and adventurous action, first as a commander in WW II and then as Britains last viceroy of India, resulted in thousands of unnecessary deaths; the Nazi apologist and anti-Semite Sir Arthur Bryant; and Walter Monckton, the minister of labour whose industrial policies left Britain in thrall to rapacious trade unions. Even King George VI is characterized as an unimaginative and hidebound appeaser. In his thoroughgoing revisionism, Roberts makes some arresting historical arguments (he contends that Mountbattens socialist views and pro - Congress Party stance resulted in a tragically mishandled transition of power during the 1948 birth of India and Pakistan). But too often, Robertss text reads like a mean-spirited attack on the personal foibles of some dead men; it does nothing to diminish the stature of Britains magnificent Last Lion. (Kirkus Reviews) Review Quote An elegantly written, thought-provoking book...an essential reappraisal of British myths since 1939 Promotional "Headline" A controversial account of the Churchill years by a bestselling historian. The best sort of history - revealing, gossipy and acidulous OBSERVER Details ISBN185799213X Author Andrew Roberts Pages 368 Publisher Orion Publishing Co ISBN-10 185799213X ISBN-13 9781857992137 Format Paperback Place of Publication London Country of Publication United Kingdom DEWEY 941.0840922 Birth 1963 Imprint Weidenfeld & Nicolson Language English Edition 2nd Media Book Illustrations 8 Year 2004 Publication Date 2004-03-04 AU Release Date 2004-03-04 NZ Release Date 2004-03-04 UK Release Date 2004-03-04 Audience General We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. 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