Churchill

Walking with Destiny

By: Andrew Roberts

Narrated by: Stephen Thorne

Brought to you by Penguin.

Winston Churchill towers over every other figure in 20th-century British history. By the time of his death at the age of 90 in 1965, many thought him to be the greatest man in the world.

There have been over a thousand previous biographies of Churchill. Andrew Roberts now draws on over 40 new sources, including the private diaries of King George VI, used in no previous Churchill biography, to depict him more intimately and persuasively than any of its predecessors. Masterfully narrated by Stephen Thorne, this audiobook in no way conceals Churchill's faults, and it allows the listener to appreciate his virtues and character in full: his titanic capacity for work (and drink), his ability see the big picture, his willingness to take risks and insistence on being where the action was, his good humour even in the most desperate circumstances, the breadth and strength of his friendships and his extraordinary propensity to burst into tears at unexpected moments. Above all, it shows us the wellsprings of his personality - his lifelong desire to please his father (even long after his father's death) but aristocratic disdain for the opinions of almost everyone else, his love of the British Empire, his sense of history and its connection to the present.

During the Second World War, Churchill summoned a particular scientist to see him several times for technical advice. 'It was the same whenever we met', wrote the young man. 'I had a feeling of being recharged by a source of living power.' Harry Hopkins, President Roosevelt's emissary, wrote, 'Wherever he was, there was a battlefront.' Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke, Churchill's essential partner in strategy and most severe critic in private, wrote in his diary, 'I thank God I was given such an opportunity of working alongside such a man, and of having my eyes opened to the fact that occasionally such supermen exist on this earth.'

© Andrew Roberts 2018 (P) Penguin Audio 2018

A all rounded perspective of the life of Winston Churchill

This book gives a nuanced and all rounded perspective of the life of Churchill which puts into context his action and his thinking behind those actions. While putting to rest conspiracies that want to portray him as another evil figure of the 20th century. Overall this book was great and added to my understanding of Winston Churchill as a nuanced, flawed but a truly good man.

Marvellous Performance

One of the best audiobooks there is. I wish I had my history lessons presented in such a wonderful way.

Absolutely magnificent

Took me 7+ months to finish, and I loved every minute of it. Highly entertaining, captivating, funny and enlightening. Both Andrew Roberts and Stephen Thorne deserve praise.

Immersion in a life of Churchillian proportions

The narrator did an excellent job and the biography was not the singe thread sequential life stories I’ve encountered before biased by authors perceptions ... it was a fascinating patchwork of al that was going on around the man and others in his times - letters. diaries, personal papers available to researchers in archived in 2010. It was a marathon listen ... and I will listen to it again and again ... I often did listen to sections several times as a result o playing it at bedtime & losing my place when I fell asleep ... and never fast forwarded through stuff I heard before .... mostly I was astonished at what I didn’t hear the first time ... the pace, like the man’s life & his fellow men, never let up. Remarkable life, remarkable times & remarkably woven together this coat of many colours ...

The book was so fascinating I could have listened for another 51 hours

Before this book my knowledge about Churchill was superficial. This book was so fascinating that I could have listened for another 51 hours.

It was wonderful to get to learn about such a unique individual. He was simply a hero of mythical proportions and most politicians since have only a fraction of his energy, passion, courage and tenacity.