The Splendid and the Vile

A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz

By: Erik Larson

Narrated by: John Lee, Erik Larson

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Devil in the White City and Dead Wake delivers a fresh and compelling portrait of Winston Churchill and London during the Blitz

NAMED ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2020 BY The Washington Post • HuffPost • The Seattle Times • Lit Hub • The Week • PopSugar

On Winston Churchill’s first day as prime minister, Adolf Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away. For the next twelve months, Hitler would wage a relentless bombing campaign, killing 45,000 Britons. It was up to Churchill to hold his country together and persuade President Franklin Roosevelt that Britain was a worthy ally—and willing to fight to the end.

In The Splendid and the Vile, Erik Larson shows, in cinematic detail, how Churchill taught the British people “the art of being fearless.” It is a story of political brinkmanship, but it’s also an intimate domestic drama, set against the backdrop of Churchill’s prime-ministerial country home, Chequers; his wartime retreat, Ditchley, where he and his entourage go when the moon is brightest and the bombing threat is highest; and of course 10 Downing Street in London. Drawing on diaries, original archival documents, and once-secret intelligence reports—some released only recently—Larson provides a new lens on London’s darkest year through the day-to-day experience of Churchill and his family: his wife, Clementine; their youngest daughter, Mary, who chafes against her parents’ wartime protectiveness; their son, Randolph, and his beautiful, unhappy wife, Pamela; Pamela’s illicit lover, a dashing American emissary; and the advisers in Churchill’s “Secret Circle,” to whom he turns in the hardest moments.

The Splendid and the Vile takes readers out of today’s political dysfunction and back to a time of true leadership, when, in the face of unrelenting horror, Churchill’s eloquence, courage, and perseverance bound a country, and a family, together.

This audiobook includes a recording of Winston Churchill's 1941 Christmas Eve speech.

Excellent

First of all, it’s Erik Larson. I have read a lot about WWII, And wasn’t sure I wanted to read more about Churchill. But once I got into it, I couldn’t put this book down, and saw Churchill and the home-front war in England in a new and more personal light. And, like I said, it’s Erik Larsen.

John Lee not a good narrator for this.

Erik Larson books are always fascinating. But with John Lee’s narration, it’s like taking a trip through fascinating countryside on a bus with bad shocks.

Reader distracts from text

Reader's voice fluctuates, fading into inaudible at key moments. Had to abandon listening, resorting to reading hard copy.

Spectacular

Here is a book that will grip you from the first word and hold you attention throughout. Well worth the rime invested!

couldn't stop reading about this incredible man

this prime minister is seen as so human. even his weird flaws are exposed and at the same time you feel his heart and see his courage in keeping not only his country afloat but others. well written!