Piers Brendon was educated at Shrewsbury School and Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he read History. From 1965–1978, he was Lecturer in History, then Principal Lecturer and Head of Department, at what is now the Anglia Polytechnic University. From 1979 onwards he has worked as a free-lance writer of books, journalism and for television. From 1995 he has been a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge and was Keeper of the Churchill Archives Centre from 1995 to 2001
A crazy imperialist from Victorian era, endeavoring to get more power and public attention by way of eloquence and eccentric behavior up to the senile age. A rather sad picture with many vivid details. But no answer is found why the man is considered a political genius; instead a lot of omissions and clicheės, quite predictable from a British author.
Thought this did a very good job of providing a concise introduction to the life of this landmark in British history (whose biographies otherwise seem to run to many hundreds of pages if not to several volumes). Brendon's writing is neverless than insightful and frequently entertaining as well (I'd heartily recommend 'The Dark Valley' his book on the 1930's). His picture of Churchill is extremely credible: he is never far away from doing or saying something rediculous but nonetheless has immense reserves of determination. It is fair to say that it is difficult to give an account of both the events of Churchill's life and their context, and if you are not familiar with the history of the second world war you might find the chapters dealing with this period confusing.
This is an excellent book for anyone who is interested in Churchill but does not want to slog through some of the more enormous volumes about him. The author has a particularly picturesque use of language that I find endearing.