Churchill: An Illustrated Life

by Brenda Ralph Lewis

Using hundreds of extracts from his speeches and writings, and illustrated with rarely seen photos, this engrossing biography brings Churchill the man into focus.
 
From his childhood, military service in India and the Sudan, and work as war correspondent, to his place in politics, leadership of Britain during World War II, and role in the Cold War struggle, Churchill provides an interesting and informative account of one of the most towering figures of the twentieth century. It covers his professional and personal life, including his marriage to Clementine Hozier, their children, and his struggle with “Black Dog” depressions. Honest and accurate, the book explores Churchill’s mistakes and misjudgments as well as his successes.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography

224 pages, Hardcover

First published October 20, 2005

About the author

Brenda Ralph Lewis is a writer with over 200 books on history and numerous magazine articles and television documentaries to her name. Her fascination with Scottish history and culture began early in her career and she has since returned to the subject at every opportunity. She regards [her] book on tartans as a labor of love.

Reviews

[Gerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Churchill was very definitely a man of many parts; few statesmen or politicians have received as many honours as he did over the course of his career. For instance, although several have received the Nobel Peace Prize, none save Churchill have received the Nobel Prize for Literature. And he also received honours from other countries, who presumably were grateful for the work that he had done to help them on their way. Without doubt his career that had few parallels in British history for richness, range, longevity and achievement.

This extremely well researched and equally well illustrated biography begins, naturally, with his somewhat strange childhood before moving on to the more interesting parts such as his military service in India and the Sudan and his role as war correspondent during the Boer war, when he made a headline-grabbing escape from his captors, to his rise in the world of politics, which did have its ups and downs. But his main claim to fame was his leadership of Britain in World War II, even though his colleagues often thought him too ambitious in his plans. Thereafter he played in his part in in the post-war struggle of the Cold War years, using the Iron Curtain nomenclature perhaps for the first time.

In between his hectic work schedule the story covers his personal life in detail, including his marriage to Clementine Hozier, their children and his struggles with his 'Black Dog' depressions, as he called them.

Brenda Ralph-Lewis tells a very readable 'warts and all tale that brings the great man to life. Perhaps it was no surprise to see that he was voted the Man of the 20th century.

[Bargain Sleuth Book Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

For this and other book reviews, visit www.bargain-sleuth.com

I’ve read a lot about Franklin Roosevelt, so of course I’ve found out a bit about Winston Churchill in the process. I’m always eager to learn more, so a few years ago I read the 982-page biography Walking with Destiny and have watched several documentaries specifically about Churchill. NetGalley offered me a copy of Churchill: An Illustrated Life, a book originally published in 2013, which will be available on Kindle on June 14, 2021, in exchange for an honest opinion of the book.

I thought Churchill: An Illustrated Life was interesting. As suggested by the title, this book is heavy on photographs, interspersed with a biography, as well as frequent quotes from Winston throughout the book. There’s nothing here that I hadn’t read in Walking with Destiny, but that doesn’t mean the book wasn’t interesting. Winston Churchill led an amazing and interesting life, and if you don’t want to trudge through a thousand-page biography, this is an apt attempt. I’m a visual person, so the many pictures and captions helped tell the familiar story to me in a different way.

As a former journalist, I am always amazed at the output of Churchill’s writings. I’ve only read excerpts from various publications, and some are included in this book. Some time this year I intend to read Churchill’s history of Great Britain series of books. His biography of his ancestor, the original Duke of Marlborough, is also on my TBR list.

It amazes me every time I read or watch something about Churchill just how alone England was for more than two years fighting the Axis powers. And he held the country together when it seemed like there was no way they could win. I can not imagine what the people went through, being bombed every night, the war rations, everything. My mom and dad were born in 1936 in mining towns in Michigan’s upper peninsula, and they were poor, and the war only made it worse. They remember the lard sandwiches they were forced to eat during World War II, and I know Churchill’s England had it much worse. Churchill’s diplomacy with Roosevelt before America entered the war was masterful. Roosevelt’s Lend-Lease policy lent England aid when many people in the United States were isolationists.

I was curious to read more about the ousting of Churchill from the government as soon as the war was over. It seems incomprehensible, yet it happened. But luckily Winston returned for a few more years as PM. Unfortunately, a lifetime of not taking care of his health caught up to him and he retired when it was clear he could not go on as prime minister.

An amazing man who led and amazing life. Even though I’m trying to pare down my physical book collection, I was so impressed with the Kindle edition of this book that I bought a hard copy for my collection. I’ve got more Churchill books on my TBR, including the audiobook of Boris Johnson’s biography of Churchill, Stay tuned, I’ll be reviewing that book in the near future.

[Andréa Geleynse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting. I learned a lot and I really enjoyed the many pictures and inspiring quotations.

[J Earl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Churchill: An Illustrated Life by Brenda Ralph Lewis was so much more than I had expected. My interest was primarily the photographs, I was not, in honesty, expecting anything beyond a basic overview of his life. Yet the biography itself is a very good one and is worth reading even if the book had the normal allotment of pictures most biographies have.

I don't want to overstate and perhaps set a reader up for disappointment. This is not an exhaustive biography, but with a life as rich and full as Churchill's such a biography would be massive. Lewis goes into enough detail about his entire life rather than focus too much on the WWII period that this serves as an excellent biography for someone who has not read anything beyond a Wikipedia entry. I've read many of his books as well as several biographies and while I don't know what, if anything, was new here it was very interesting and reminded me of things I had long forgotten.

And the photographs were everything I had hoped for. Many rather iconic images as well as some I don't recall seeing before. Coupled with the biography it made the entire reading experience a joy.

While I did not pull down any of my Churchill related volumes, either his own multi-volume works or even Manchester's quite good biography, I couldn't resist going back and revisiting a book from a couple years ago that went very well with this one. Clementine Churchill: A Life in Pictures by Sonia Purnell.

I would recommend this to anyone who either wants to learn about Churchill's life or who wants to revisit his life without reading a large tome. Lewis presents Churchill with his many flaws and his very well documented strengths, all in a very fair way. Or, like me, come for the photographs and stay for the biography.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

[Alexander Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful written book about the amazing man who was Sir Winston Churchill. We know so much about him especially the second world war but with this book you will found discover there was more to Churchill than the second world war. If you admire him after reading this you will discover a new found respect and real grasp of what made Winston the Churchill we know. As anyone of us he was not perfect and made errors. But with this book you will come to understand the decisions he made and how his past haunted him. If you need to know anything about Churchill this is the book to read and I have read a few already. I would recommend it for anyone to read but especially every teenager in this country.

[Oto Bakradze · Rating 4 out of 5]

Palitra L-ს არ ახასიათებს ასეთი ხარისხის წიგნები. ცოტა გამიკვირდა 😁

[Michał · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jak sam tytuł wskazuje książka jest bogato ilustrowana zdjęciami Churchilla od najmłodszych lat po kres jego życia. Czyta się ją lekko i dość szybko ale zawiera chyba wszystko, co najważniejsze.

W samej książce znalazłem kilkanaście literówek i duży błąd w składzie (brakowało dokończenia całego akapitu), choć być może to tylko moje wydanie.

[Sid Cole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book about a great man. Did anyone ever have a sharper wit then Churchill?