SPLENDID AND THE VILE

A startling, gripping portrait of what it was like to be alive in Britain during the Blitz, and what it was like to be around Winston Churchill. On Winston Churchill's first day as Prime Minister, Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away. For the next 12 months, the Nazis would wage a relentless bombing campaign, killing 45,000 Britons and destroying two million homes. In this book, Erik Larson gives a new and brilliantly cinematic account of how Britain's most iconic leader set about unifying the nation at its most vulnerable moment, and teaching 'the art of being fearless.' Set in the shelled streets of London, the book traces the fraught decisions, personal clashes and intimate affairs that defined Churchill's first tempestuous months in power. Larson's deft portraits show the essential connection that words created between the powerful and the powerless, and the reader turns the pages with his gripping prose. There are narrative arcs, heroes, villains and suspense aplenty. Drawing on once-secret intelligence reports and diaries, the bestselling author takes us to Churchill's own chambers, giving a vivid vision of true leadership and perseverance bound a country together. 585pp, paperback.