Warlord – A Life of Winston Churchill at War Debuts
When he became prime minister in May 1940, during Britain’s darkest hour, Churchill was already well beyond the age when most men are retired. For the next five years, that included an illness in 1943 that many thought he would not survive, he bore perhaps the greatest pressures ever placed upon any statesman or war leader. His grasp of the military art ranged from genius one moment, to appalling failure the next. He experienced the euphoria of success and the bitter cup of failure. To his death, Churchill never fully recovered from the sting of his role in the Dardenelles disaster in 1915. No detail that concerned the war escaped his attention, often to the despair of his military chieftains. Whether grilling his generals, admirals and airmen around a conference table with penetrating questions, pursuing strategic questions with Roosevelt and Stalin, or planning the invasion of France before the ashes of Dunkirk had even cooled, Churchill as a war leader combined an astute grasp of detail, unorthodox, often maddening diversions into areas his military advisors deemed irrelevant and sometimes downright detrimental, and on far too many occasions for it to be mere happenstance, sheer brilliance.
{default}Warlord is the story of the military life of Winston Churchill – the descendent of Marlborough who, despite never having risen above the rank of lieutenant colonel, came eventually to direct the military campaigns of his nation, and more than any other man, to save Britain from tyranny during his and his nation’s finest hour.
ACG selected Carlo D’Este’s outstanding new biography, Warlord,
as one of our ‘must buy’ books in our Holiday Shopping Guide in
the upcoming Jan 09 issue of ACG (on sale in mid-November).
As the former Executive Director of the Winston Churchill
Memorial and Library at Westminster College in Fulton, MO (site
of Churchill’s famous 1946 ‘Iron Curtain’ speech), I’ve read my
share of Churchill biographies. But, I can say without reservation
that Carlo D’Este’s new Warlord has to rank at the top of the list.
Warlord’s incredibly well researched examination of Churchill as
man and soldier forms the basis for truly understanding
Churchill the world statesman. In my opinion, what Carlo D’Este
reveals in Warlord is absolutely critical for a true appreciation of
Churchill’s wartime leadership in World War II.
Warlord is the Bookshelf subject in our upcoming March 09 issue
(available in mid-January 09).
Jerry Morelock
Editor in Chief, Armchair General Magazine