Churchill

Walking with Destiny

By: Andrew Roberts

Narrated by: Stephen Thorne

Length: 50 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

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.'

©2018 Andrew Roberts (P)2018 Penguin Audio

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.

A very human yet informative biography

I thoroughly enjoyed the book. The book (as well as the reader ) did an excellent job capturing Churchill's great oratory, humour, idiosyncrasies, sense of history, and great love for the English-speaking Peoples.

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.

Informative, balanced and extremely enjoyable

The early parts of the book about his childhood seem very normal for the times and not of any major significance when looking to read about the man.
Yet as the book continues and as the various successes and failures unfold the book provides a complete and sometimes funny account of Churchill.
I say it is balanced because there are criticisms and rebuttals of things said by both his critics and Winston himself
I thoroughly recommend the book
The advantage of listening to it mainly whilst traveling is wonderful

Great book.

What a book. I loved it from start to finish. I believe it's the best book writen about Churchill. Thanks Mr. Roberts for your ultimate masterpiece. As some say, every masterpiece has a mistake "encoded" somewhere. I found one in your wonderful story. Assasins of Nazi leader Heydrich trained by SOE weren't both Czech. Leader of the commando was Gabcik (Slovak). Anyway - fantastic & sometimes very funny (when quoting Churchill) story and a great narrator.

His Finest 50 Hours (and 28 minutes)

I have to say, first and foremost, before anything else, that this is hands down the best audiobook I've ever listened to--and I've listened to a few.

It's not for any particular love of Churchill, although I do confess to having adored him long before I came to this book. It's rather the incredible complexity of his seemingly never-ending life; I never fail to remark that he usually had done (or achieved) more things before noon on his average day than I have in my lifetime, and that furthermore, at 61 I find my life winding down. Contemplating _directing a world war_ three years from now and then continuing that for a _further five years_ is, well, inconceivable, but the fact that he did it with such wit, intelligence and just unparalleled WISDOM is just beyond words.

And to have almost every moment of this incredible life--I would put Churchill's ultimate importance to humanity in the top five, if not at the very top--recorded to be played at my leisure, for so many hour (upon delicious hour) read, I might add, by the most able and enjoyable narrator I have EVER had the pleasure to listen to . . . well, never in the making of audiobooks was so much enjoyment created by so many for so few (dollars).

May I ask the Right Honorable Attending to accept my strolling (just about everywhere) ovation.

must read

amazing reading, amazing story. imensly informative and touching. an unbelievable story, yet fully supported by the facts

Excellent Read

Author is obviously a Churchill fan and that is to be kept in mind. However the fact that he keeps going back on Churchill's childhood neglect as the reason for his perseverance and will is really annoying. It's enough to mention it, saying it could be a motivating factor, but to keep implying it was one of the main reasons for his success is ridiculous. Churchill was a man built for greatness, and he achieved all of it himself through sheer will. And even if his childhood circumstances were favorable, I doubt it would have changed the many things he achieved and the ideologies he held. This is purely hypothetical ofcourse - just like the author was in every other chapter.
Also, one point to note is most of the book is a lot of direct quotations from various characters, with minimal commentary from the author, who was just sewing events together. This, I realized is what made this book wonderful. The ending, where the author himself expressed views on the various events in Churchill's life- almost categorizing them, arbitrarily, into good and bad left me annoyed. So although I loved the book, I like the author for his compilation - not his writing.

Finally a great Churchill biography.

Finally a great Churchill biography. Good insights about WW2 behind the scenes of politics, diplomacy, public relations, military strategy, and military industry.