The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz Hardcover – February 25, 2020

As a reader normally immersed in medieval history, I knew this book would be a departure for me. But I do love Erik Larson. Because he limited the time frame to two years—actually, May 1940 to December 1941—I was able to absorb the history without becoming overwhelmed. This is the story about the blitz (though I only recall encountering the word twice) and Winston Churchill’s frustrating attempts to shore up the courage of the English in the midst of terrible bombings. And his even more frustrating attempts to persuade President Roosevelt to commit America to the cause. Germany’s superior technology was pitted against the spunk and courage of the RAF. The Germans waited until after dark to start their raids, because the English didn’t have the radar to track them and they could attack with impunity. They dropped incendiaries to light up their targets so they could see where to place the bombs. I never realized how many people were killed: over 44,600 throughout the country, with over 52,000 injured. And these are only civilian deaths. The numbers are just astonishing. All the while, Londoners went about their everyday lives, though their difficulties were hard for the modern person to envision:"In London, as the rain continued, the mundane challenges of daily life became wearing, like the endless dripping of rainwater through roofs perforated by shrapnel. A shortage of glass meant windows had to be patched with wood, cardboard, or canvas… Electricity and gas outages were regular occurrences. Commuting to work became a long and tedious process, with a one-hour journey potentially expanding to four hours or more."Many Londoners retired to bomb shelters and subways every night for safety. It wasn't always safe and it was certainly unpleasant. They had to deal with unsanitary conditions (who would have thought to build enough toilets for such a crowd?), overcrowding, dripping water, and the stench. Toward the end, Hitler decided to focus his bombings on landmarks like St. Paul’s and Westminster Abbey, and of course the Houses of Parliament, which was a terrible blow to morale. Churchill was under fire from his own government and called for a vote of confidence, but no one could really envision a more effective leader under these circumstances and he came through with flying colors. He was clearly the man for the job, even with all his idiosyncrasies. Throughout the book, we see how his family supported him through his trials, and we get a snapshot of their personal lives, as well as the life of his secretary John Colville, whose diary “became a touchstone for every scholar interested in the inner workings of Downing Street under Churchill”. After the last huge raid on May 10 (on Churchill’s one year anniversary of his premiership) it seemed that all was lost. It was only Hitler’s insistence on invading Russia that saved England from destruction, for all Germany’s attention shifted to the other front. But the real break—at least for England—was the attack on Pearl Harbor, and Churchill was able to heave a great sigh of relief. So did I!

What is the last book that kept you up too late at night? The Splendid and the Vile had me up too late last week trying to finish it. Although it is a non-fiction history book, it read like a thriller and I wanted to know how it ended.The Splendid and the Vile is the story of the London Blitz, the Churchill family, and London’s defiance of Nazi Germany. The book delves into not only the politics of the times and the brutality of the war, but it also delves into the personal lives of Churchill’s family and friends. It was an interesting entire picture of the one pivotal year in history.Erik Larson is a fantastic non-fiction author. I have previously read and enjoyed The Devil in the White City and Thunderstruck. I like how his books are immensely readable. They read like fiction but are non-fiction. I learned so many interesting things in this book. But by also writing about the person lives of Churchill, family, and friends, I found myself laughing at times, and struck with horror at other times. I felt for them and their trials and tribulations. The chapters were short which I prefer and also included German perspectives at the time.I didn’t realize the Germans defeated the French line and invaded France almost immediately after Churchill became the prime minister. The book had you feeling dread as you realized that the Germans were making their way through France at a much faster rate than anyone had anticipated. How would they get their soldiers back to England? How will they save themselves from invasion? How would they arm themselves and make aircraft to stave off the impending invasion? I loved how Churchill found the best person for the job in one of his friends to get aircraft manufactured . . . and hidden around the country.One thing I realized over and over again when I read this book was how Churchill was the perfect leader for his time. He was able to gather the best people around him to get the work done and he was able to keep the hope up in the people of England that they could be victorious. He traveled to bombed out areas and met personally with those impacted. He had empathy and felt their pain. He also worked slowly, but surely on Franklin Roosevelt to get him vested in England’s cause as he realized they couldn’t win in the long run without help from the United States. He definitely had eccentric behavior that was humorous, but he was a great leader during very trying times. I wish we could have such a leader.Churchill’s wife Clementine was the perfect partner who helped him to host events and wasn’t afraid to tell him how she felt about things. She also made a personal tour of bomb shelters and noted what they needed for updates, with specific care for sanitation. As an environmental engineer, I thought this section was fascinating, but I also loved as a wife, that the had such a great partnership that Clementine could do these things on her own, report back to Winston, and he could get improvements through.There were certain episodes in the book that I just can’t get out of my mind. Like a singer that was running late and got to his night club right on time to be bombed and killed. Or the love affairs that sprang up between assorted people living through harrowing times.I somehow had no idea that Rudolph Hess flew from Germany and crash landed in Scotland to try to make a peace treaty. I had heard of him but had no idea about this episode and what ultimately happened to him. This would make a great story on its own or even better, an alternative fictional story where he succeeds.Favorite Quotes:“No one had any doubt that the bombers would come.”“Whatever Winston’s shortcomings, he seems to be the man for the occasion. His spirit is indomitable and even if France and England should be lost, I feel like he would carry on the crusade himself with a band of privateers.”“Here, as in other speeches, Churchill demonstrated a striking trait: his knack for making people feel loftier, stronger, and above all, more courageous.”“Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few.”“Afterward, as Churchill, Clementine, and the others emerged on the steps of the university, a large crowd surged forward, cheering. And at that instant, in a singular moment of meteorological synchronicity, the sun broke through the clouds.”Overall, The Splendid and the Vile is non-fiction at it’s finest and most thrilling. It’s a story of humanity also at it’s greatest with strong leadership and a people willing to face long odds to keep their country free. I loved it.Book Source: Purchased from Amazon.com

One of the best books on WWII I've ever read. The characters are almost all familiar though here they were made into real people. Reading almost like a novel rather than history, the events of the Blitz became real and all the more devastating. I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in the war or the major players of the period.

Erik did a fantastic job with this book. I learned a great deal about the bombardment of England by Germany. Larson captured the spirit and extent of bombardment and how the people dealt with it.

This is a brilliant piece of narrative history, the very personal saga of how the Churchill family and individual Britons survived the 1940 German aerial onslaught. Larson weaves the individual stories of the Churchill family with official reports and documentation, resulting in a fresh take on a on a well-documented subject. I furthermore appreciate the contrasts with Churchill family members and confidantes with Nazis such as Goebbels, Hess, and especially Goring.What separates this historical narrative from previous works are the personal stories, from the heartbreaking yet salacious Randolph-Pamela Churchill saga to the individual experiences of ordinary Britons. From the masses lodged in tunnels to the elite in the Savoy Hotel, their tales of endurance and survival are accounted here.Heartily recommended: To echo many other reviewers, Larson again demonstrates his gift for transforming well-known history into personal, gripping non-fiction-which reads like a novel.

The Splendid and the Vile by Erik LarsonThis book focuses on the dramatic events between the arrival of Winston Churchill as Prime Minister in May 1940 to the entry into the war of the United States in December 1941. The narrative moves effortlessly between the high drama of the war and the intimacies of Churchill’s family and the contrast between terrible events and the concerns of everyday life, not least the universal pleasures of romance in the beautiful summer of 1940, much of it told through the observations of Churchill’s youngest daughter Mary and one of his private assistants John Colville. This is very much the world of upper class English life but wider social comments come through reports from the Mass Observation correspondents.Churchill is introduced as an enigmatic figure divisive and unreliable to many political contemporaries but adored by much of the public who believe he is the only man to lead the country out of the dire straits apparent by May 1940. A striking part of the ensuing narrative is how Churchill becomes increasingly respected and even loved by those who work closely with him. He is described with all his eccentricity and unreasonableness but also his warm humanity. The unremitting pressure on him is all too obvious and although prone to dangerous diversions and an enthusiasm for any form of action his strategic sense is a dominating theme. Right from the beginning he sees Nazism as evil and not a force to negotiate with, he sees the absolute need to win the USA to the cause and he understands the power of image and oratory to stiffen morale and see the country through the dangerous months of the Battle of Britain and the Blitz. The range of his concerns, his work load and amazing energy are quite remarkable. There are wonderful pen portraits of Beaverbrook, Ismay, Lindemann, Goring and Harry Hopkins but also the sadness of aspects of Churchill’s family life particularly the increasingly tragic figure of his son Randolph. The main themes are peppered with little vignettes such as the importance of tea for civilian life, the accounts for running Chartwell, the significance of radar, and the ceaseless round of Churchill’s purposeful entertaining.The author manages to bring to life a familiar period of British history with the skill of a novelist and an immediacy to events that take the reader to the heart of the personal and national drama. At the end this reader, at least, was reminded how fortunate civilisation was to have such a champion as Winston Churchill at its moment of greatest danger.

Not sure who this is aimed at. £20 for a book whose contents are little more than magazine filler. It's well written, as you would expect from a writer of successful crime thrillers but it is a scissors and paste job - all the material in the book has been done before (spookily familiar) and we read nothing new. It is one of those books which, if the author was not already known, the manuscript would have received a polite rejection slip. If you know nothing about Churchill and WW2 and are about 12 years old, this book is possibly for you. Otherwise, save your money. Academic rigour and analysis; not on this occasion.

May, 1940. Already weakened by failures in Norway, the successful blitzkrieg in Holland and Belgium sounded the death knell for Chamberlain as Prime Minister. Reluctantly King George VI offered the position to Winston Churchill, a man adored by the public although many of his colleagues thought him too erratic for the role. Larson sets out to tell of Churchill’s first year in power: holding British morale together during the Blitz; desperately working to build up British forces to defend against the expected invasion; battling to get America, even if they weren’t willing to put boots on the ground, to at least assist with money and equipment while Britain stood alone against the overpowering forces of the Nazi war machine.Larson is brilliant at bringing historical events to life so that it feels as if the reader is there in the room rather than reading a dry recital of historical facts years afterwards. Here he uses a variety of personal accounts to paint a vivid picture of Churchill through this dramatic period – primarily the diaries of his daughter, Mary, and his private secretary, Jock Colville, supplemented by various letters and memos between Churchill and members of his inner team. Larson also turns to contemporaneous reports in the newspapers and on radio, to show what people knew and how they felt at the time rather than through the lens of hindsight.It’s probably true to say there’s nothing startlingly new in the book, but Larson brings out the drama and emotion of the time without sacrificing factual accuracy and detail. Names from the history books become living, breathing people – Beaverbrook, Lindemann, Goering, Hess, et al – and we see their weaknesses and vanities along with their passion and commitment, whichever side they were on. The use of the word “saga” in the subtitle made me fear this might be too geared towards gossip about Churchill’s family, but in fact we learn just enough about them to get a feel for Churchill as a family man, and through Mary’s diary extracts we also get a picture of how the young upper-classes lived and played during this early part of the war, and how their attitudes changed and hardened as the dark realities of modern air-led warfare became clear.What Larson does so well, though, is to bring the lives of the mass of ordinary working people into the story, not simply as a kind of audience for the great and the good, but as real participants in their own fate. For this, he uses extensively the records of the Mass Observation project, where many volunteer observers kept diaries in which they recorded not just their own lives but their impressions of what was happening in their localities. We see London reeling and terrified after the first air-raids, but the Londoners gradually realising that they were brave enough to take it, and showing the resilience and defiance for which they are remembered. He shows a kind of euphoria developing, and a good deal of sexual licence on display, due to a growing eat, drink and be merry attitude. Larson takes us to Coventry to see the devastating raid there and its aftermath, and his description of this piece of history I already knew well is so vivid that he reduced me to tears and roused my rage anew at this mindless death and destruction.Back with Churchill, we get to know the people in his smallish inner circle and how they interacted. We are critical of all government ministers and of course they should not be above criticism, but we perhaps don’t cut them enough slack for the enormous responsibilities we expect them to deal with on our behalf. Churchill lived a life of comparative luxury, and rationing, which hit the general public hard, didn’t seem to make his table any less lavish, or his brandy to run out. But he worked such long hours his staff were permanently exhausted and he himself became ill (and worked through it), he had to tolerate and soothe the ruffled feelings of those to whom he delegated the impossible while still driving them to get it done yesterday, he regularly put himself in danger to show the public that he understood and shared what they were going through, he had to cajole and flatter the American president endlessly for very little return in the way of practical assistance; and frankly I didn’t begrudge him his smuggled cigars and chocolate, his extensive cellar, his extra meat provided by grateful landowning Dukes, even the money that was raised by supporters to help pay his household expenses. I suspect his poor entourage regularly wanted to beat him over the head with a brick, especially when he would put on records and start dancing round the dining room at 1 a.m. after a twenty-hour working day, but I’m glad they didn’t.Another excellent book from Larson, his trademark blending of historical facts with the personal building to give an intimate and affectionate portrait of Churchill’s personality and daily life as he led Britain through its darkest hour. Highly recommended.

The first two years of Churchill’s premiership - a fantastic page turner based on diaries of the great and the good (including Nazis) AND ordinary Brits responding to Mass Observation questionnaires. Reads like a brilliant novel.

I didn't think there could be a truly fresh presentation of this most-historically-covered of periods -- May 1940 to May 1941 in the UK. But Erik Larson has done it, and it's a wonderful read.By delving into the diaries of Mary Churchill (the great man's daughter) and Jock Colville (his personal secretary), and by using countless other sources -- British, German and American -- Mr Larson has fashioned a truly new history. It is atmospheric, immersive and presents innumerable new perspectives and titbits. It is great stuff. There are simply too many aspects and personages to cover in a short review. Churchill, Mary (a major historical figure in her own right), Colville, Beaverbrook, Lindemann ('the Prof.'), Roosevelt, Harry Hopkins, Averell Harriman, Adolf Galland, Goring, Goebbels, Hess, Pamela Digby (Churchill), Gay Margesson (Colville's unrequited love), Clementine, Randolph, Pug Ismay -- the list goes on and on, with great and novel illumination of previously 'dark corners'.If I have a quibble, it's a tiny one: on this most British of subjects, could they not have produced a British-English version? Recounting the rationing of 'gasoline' -- one of a thousand examples here of resolute Americana -- seems a bit discordant in the context of the subject.I bought the paperback with misgivings -- did I really need another book on this period and subject? I have now replaced it with the hardcover, 'for keeps'. A wonderful book that I can't recommend more highly. Buy it.