What do you think?
Rate this book
In Search of Churchill: A Historian's Journey
In Search of Churchill is the story of Gilbert’s thirty-year quest for his subject. He reveals the staggering extent of his historical labour and shares with the reader some of the great moments in his pursuit. ‘I remember the extraordinary sense of elation when, one morning in 1987, I reached the final file in the bottom drawer of the last filing cabinet.’ With characteristic modesty he does not say how many filing cabinets were necessary to contain the fifteen tons of paper which he had sorted through to reach that final file. The book offers many insights into how one of our leading historians and biographers goes about his task.
380 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
11 people are currently reading
182 people want to read
About the author
Martin Gilbert
249 books417 followersThe official biographer of Winston Churchill and a leading historian on the Twentieth Century, Sir Martin Gilbert was a scholar and an historian who, though his 88 books, has shown there is such a thing as “true history”
Born in London in 1936, Martin Gilbert was educated at Highgate School, and Magdalen College, Oxford, graduating with First Class Honours. He was a Research Scholar at St Anthony's College, and became a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford in 1962, and an Honorary Fellow in 1994. After working as a researcher for Randolph Churchill, Gilbert was chosen to take over the writing of the Churchill biography upon Randolph's death in 1968, writing six of the eight volumes of biography and editing twelve volumes of documents. In addition, Gilbert has written pioneering and classic works on the First and Second World Wars, the Twentieth Century, the Holocaust, and Jewish history.
Gilbert drove every aspect of his books, from finding archives to corresponding with eyewitnesses and participants that gave his work veracity and meaning, to finding and choosing illustrations, drawing maps that mention each place in the text, and compiling the indexes. He travelled widely lecturing and researching, advised political figures and filmmakers, and gave a voice and a name “to those who fought and those who fell.”
https://twitter.com/sirmartin36
https://www.facebook.com/sirmartingil...
Born in London in 1936, Martin Gilbert was educated at Highgate School, and Magdalen College, Oxford, graduating with First Class Honours. He was a Research Scholar at St Anthony's College, and became a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford in 1962, and an Honorary Fellow in 1994. After working as a researcher for Randolph Churchill, Gilbert was chosen to take over the writing of the Churchill biography upon Randolph's death in 1968, writing six of the eight volumes of biography and editing twelve volumes of documents. In addition, Gilbert has written pioneering and classic works on the First and Second World Wars, the Twentieth Century, the Holocaust, and Jewish history.
Gilbert drove every aspect of his books, from finding archives to corresponding with eyewitnesses and participants that gave his work veracity and meaning, to finding and choosing illustrations, drawing maps that mention each place in the text, and compiling the indexes. He travelled widely lecturing and researching, advised political figures and filmmakers, and gave a voice and a name “to those who fought and those who fell.”
https://twitter.com/sirmartin36
https://www.facebook.com/sirmartingil...
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
January 23, 2020
I bought this book, probably from Amazon and it sat on my shelves for about a year when I finally decided to read it- I mistook it for a regular biography- it is not. Although the reader learns a great deal about Churchill and his times, it is as much about the work of a historian, a very thorough historian and his time writing about Churchill. He devoted 25 years to research on the singular topic of Churchill. His biography went to several volumes, 8 if I remember correctly. It is interesting from that point of view but there were times when the reader wishes he would just get on with it without the lists of sources and interviews which read like a who's who of English gentry.
It is often said of historians writing biographies that they can lose their objectivity in the process. This clearly was the case for Gilbert. He included one description of the man by an old acquaintance, reminiscing about an event that had happened 60 or 70 years previous in which the man remembered Churchill telling him that he could see in the future him becoming a leader of Britain who then saves the country from an invasion of a very bad element. The memory was so specific that it is very suspect to the objective reader. More than likely, the old man had either embellished the story consciously or perhaps remembered it through the lens of history where his childhood friend predicted his ascent and somehow mixed it up with real live events. It seems to the reader that the historian, were he an objective source would have realized this.
The book is well written and the proof of his research is on every page of the book, from his work with Rudolf, Winston's son, to meetings with correspondents of Winston's who had saved all of the letters that had been exchanged between them. It is astounding to the reader that Churchill could have written so many letters- at least in the thousands, perhaps more. At the same time, while he had scores of duties for his public life, he managed to write a several volume history of the Duke of Marlborough who was related to him. He wrote other books as well. Churchill was an exceptional man, there can be no doubt but Gilbert looked only at the positive except where he mentioned specific instances when criticisms could easily be written off.
In the book, Gilbert writes about just about every phase of Churchill's life- except for one very glaring exception. Gilbert quoted Churchill's promise to the Irish negotiators when Britain was being forced out of Ireland that he longed for a united Ireland. This was of course at the very time he and Lloyd George lied about the commission that was to be set up to re-examine the "Irish Question". That never happened. Another part of this omission was Churchill's sending the Black and Tans into Ireland and terrorized Catholic Ireland. He also approved of the many British atrocities committed during the War for Independence. Further, he neglects Churchill the imperialist and its impact on the countries where the British took over choosing instead to repeating that Churchill supported independence for India. At the end of the day, Churchill was a great man, a genius, but like all other great men, he wasn't always right. I would have had far more respect for Gilbert had he been more objective.
It is often said of historians writing biographies that they can lose their objectivity in the process. This clearly was the case for Gilbert. He included one description of the man by an old acquaintance, reminiscing about an event that had happened 60 or 70 years previous in which the man remembered Churchill telling him that he could see in the future him becoming a leader of Britain who then saves the country from an invasion of a very bad element. The memory was so specific that it is very suspect to the objective reader. More than likely, the old man had either embellished the story consciously or perhaps remembered it through the lens of history where his childhood friend predicted his ascent and somehow mixed it up with real live events. It seems to the reader that the historian, were he an objective source would have realized this.
The book is well written and the proof of his research is on every page of the book, from his work with Rudolf, Winston's son, to meetings with correspondents of Winston's who had saved all of the letters that had been exchanged between them. It is astounding to the reader that Churchill could have written so many letters- at least in the thousands, perhaps more. At the same time, while he had scores of duties for his public life, he managed to write a several volume history of the Duke of Marlborough who was related to him. He wrote other books as well. Churchill was an exceptional man, there can be no doubt but Gilbert looked only at the positive except where he mentioned specific instances when criticisms could easily be written off.
In the book, Gilbert writes about just about every phase of Churchill's life- except for one very glaring exception. Gilbert quoted Churchill's promise to the Irish negotiators when Britain was being forced out of Ireland that he longed for a united Ireland. This was of course at the very time he and Lloyd George lied about the commission that was to be set up to re-examine the "Irish Question". That never happened. Another part of this omission was Churchill's sending the Black and Tans into Ireland and terrorized Catholic Ireland. He also approved of the many British atrocities committed during the War for Independence. Further, he neglects Churchill the imperialist and its impact on the countries where the British took over choosing instead to repeating that Churchill supported independence for India. At the end of the day, Churchill was a great man, a genius, but like all other great men, he wasn't always right. I would have had far more respect for Gilbert had he been more objective.
July 11, 2014
A very personal account to the extensive biography of Churchill (several volumes) written by Martin Gilbert which took over 25 years. Mr. Gilbert started under the auspices of Churchill’s son Randolph – who does come off at times as a tyrant (and sometimes benevolent).
There is considerable detective work involved in writing accurate historical research. Letters must be put in chronological order; events and characters within these letters are often mysterious and must be scrutinized to determine who they were and the role played.
At times one gets the impression that Mr. Gilbert paints too much of an aura of saintliness around the “Great Man” – but I suppose that is inevitable given his historical stature and the enormity of his written output. Even forgetting his political career – Churchill’s literary, journalistic and artistic works are prodigious. As Gilbert states politics and politicians since Churchill’s era have diminished somewhat in eminence.
Churchill was a leader unafraid to take decisions. There are personal portraits of the people who worked beside him – his secretaries and literary assistants. There are many interesting anecdotes that provide a real humanity to Churchill making him warm and approachable. Churchill valued individualism and self-initiative over a person’s rank or title.
Indeed I found this book more personal then the official biographies of Churchill by Martin Gilbert, which seemed to me somewhat distant and overly factual with little analysis.
There is considerable detective work involved in writing accurate historical research. Letters must be put in chronological order; events and characters within these letters are often mysterious and must be scrutinized to determine who they were and the role played.
At times one gets the impression that Mr. Gilbert paints too much of an aura of saintliness around the “Great Man” – but I suppose that is inevitable given his historical stature and the enormity of his written output. Even forgetting his political career – Churchill’s literary, journalistic and artistic works are prodigious. As Gilbert states politics and politicians since Churchill’s era have diminished somewhat in eminence.
Churchill was a leader unafraid to take decisions. There are personal portraits of the people who worked beside him – his secretaries and literary assistants. There are many interesting anecdotes that provide a real humanity to Churchill making him warm and approachable. Churchill valued individualism and self-initiative over a person’s rank or title.
Indeed I found this book more personal then the official biographies of Churchill by Martin Gilbert, which seemed to me somewhat distant and overly factual with little analysis.
April 25, 2010
For some reason, now unknown to me, I had ignored the works of Martin Gilbert, particularly those regarding Winston Churchill. Perhaps I read some sour review or comment, and the entries for his work got pushed down on my Churchill list. Regardless, someone praised this book, and, presented with an opportunity on a recent long trip to take something along which I could either devour or dispense with expeditiously, I fortutiously selected this work, albeit mostly for its size: it and another book fit neatly in my briefcase adjacent to my notebook computer (three for the space of one, with the notebook turned and slid in just so).
From the very first pages, I was captivated. What could have been in anyone's mind that discouraged me to put this off? As I am finding to be typical, I respond very positively to those books whose authors have had the benefit of access to records and resources recently made available to them (even just as historians) because of the passage of time or the deaths of involved individuals. This one is no different. Gilbert's knowledge of Churchill's life and affairs is encyclopedic. That assertion is supported merely by the evidence that one book he published is merely an index to the hundreds of thousands of both public and private documents (and, in round numbers, a thousand books) about, or by, Churchill.
This is not a book about Churchill's life. It's about Gilbert's search for Churchill's life and story. But in the process of describing how he came to become involved, much more interesting material about Churchill pours forth than one could reasonably expect. In fact, so much more that I enjoyed it far more than any other so-called biography of Churchill (but note that I have yet to read Gilbert's, so I may yet change my mind).
For anyone interested in Churchill, this book is a must-read. I am embarassed to admit that I had somehow managed to ignore this book for 16 years, until prodded by another enthuiast. How unfortunate. For once, the quotes and blurbs by reviewers and newspapers on the cover and back of the paperback version of the book are completely correct.
From the very first pages, I was captivated. What could have been in anyone's mind that discouraged me to put this off? As I am finding to be typical, I respond very positively to those books whose authors have had the benefit of access to records and resources recently made available to them (even just as historians) because of the passage of time or the deaths of involved individuals. This one is no different. Gilbert's knowledge of Churchill's life and affairs is encyclopedic. That assertion is supported merely by the evidence that one book he published is merely an index to the hundreds of thousands of both public and private documents (and, in round numbers, a thousand books) about, or by, Churchill.
This is not a book about Churchill's life. It's about Gilbert's search for Churchill's life and story. But in the process of describing how he came to become involved, much more interesting material about Churchill pours forth than one could reasonably expect. In fact, so much more that I enjoyed it far more than any other so-called biography of Churchill (but note that I have yet to read Gilbert's, so I may yet change my mind).
For anyone interested in Churchill, this book is a must-read. I am embarassed to admit that I had somehow managed to ignore this book for 16 years, until prodded by another enthuiast. How unfortunate. For once, the quotes and blurbs by reviewers and newspapers on the cover and back of the paperback version of the book are completely correct.
July 29, 2025
I have read this several times before.
Martin Gilbert was a British historian who - mostly - specialised in World War Two, the Holocaust, and Jewish history.
This book is an account of his involvement in the writing of the huge 8(?might be 7) volume biography of Winston Churchill. His involvement started as a research assistant to Randolph Churchill who wrote - with much research assistance - the first two volumes of the biography. Gilbert was responsible for the following volumes.
It is a really useful insight into the process of writing history. Each chapter deals with a different aspect of the biography some of which are specific periods of Churchill's life, e.g. The Dardanelles. Sometimes different types of sources, e.g. Diaries and Diarists or Inkwells of Gold (which is about letters.)
I think if I ran a course in history course at a University I might put this on the reading list as an illustration of the practical parts of historical research.
By the time you finish you get the impression that Gilbert looks very favourably on Churchill. There isn't much discussion - except briefly about Churchill's attitude to Jewish people - of Churchill's less savoury activities.
I think Churchill is a complex figure. He was born a Victorian. Died an second Elizabethan. He was involved in politics - at high levels - in the early 20th century until the 1960s. Of course he had attitudes that make us uncomfortable now. He also made decisions that had horrific consequences - the Bengal Famine of 1943 being one example (about which I know very little and would like to know much more) - and yet was firmly anti-Nazi whilst stuck on the fringes of the Tory Party and seen as an out of touch maverick. He was heavily involved in the creation of the welfare state. His words are key to Britain's decision to stand and fight the Nazis through to the bitter end - "We will never surrender."
I think painting him as an out and out villain is as historically ignorant as painting him as an out and out hero. History rewards no one for mythology. Churchill was a great man - and I make no apologies for using that phrase - but he was a complex figure. I've only read one volume of Gilbert's biography and that seemed much more nuanced than this. But this isn't a bad place to start to get an idea of the complexities of Churchill.
Although I think it is out of print.
Martin Gilbert was a British historian who - mostly - specialised in World War Two, the Holocaust, and Jewish history.
This book is an account of his involvement in the writing of the huge 8(?might be 7) volume biography of Winston Churchill. His involvement started as a research assistant to Randolph Churchill who wrote - with much research assistance - the first two volumes of the biography. Gilbert was responsible for the following volumes.
It is a really useful insight into the process of writing history. Each chapter deals with a different aspect of the biography some of which are specific periods of Churchill's life, e.g. The Dardanelles. Sometimes different types of sources, e.g. Diaries and Diarists or Inkwells of Gold (which is about letters.)
I think if I ran a course in history course at a University I might put this on the reading list as an illustration of the practical parts of historical research.
By the time you finish you get the impression that Gilbert looks very favourably on Churchill. There isn't much discussion - except briefly about Churchill's attitude to Jewish people - of Churchill's less savoury activities.
I think Churchill is a complex figure. He was born a Victorian. Died an second Elizabethan. He was involved in politics - at high levels - in the early 20th century until the 1960s. Of course he had attitudes that make us uncomfortable now. He also made decisions that had horrific consequences - the Bengal Famine of 1943 being one example (about which I know very little and would like to know much more) - and yet was firmly anti-Nazi whilst stuck on the fringes of the Tory Party and seen as an out of touch maverick. He was heavily involved in the creation of the welfare state. His words are key to Britain's decision to stand and fight the Nazis through to the bitter end - "We will never surrender."
I think painting him as an out and out villain is as historically ignorant as painting him as an out and out hero. History rewards no one for mythology. Churchill was a great man - and I make no apologies for using that phrase - but he was a complex figure. I've only read one volume of Gilbert's biography and that seemed much more nuanced than this. But this isn't a bad place to start to get an idea of the complexities of Churchill.
Although I think it is out of print.
January 23, 2018
This is the story of the researching and writing of a biography of Winston Churchill by his official biographer, Martin Gilbert. It is then an autobiography of sorts about writing a biography--a unique and interesting approach. Well-written and an enjoyable read, the book gives lots of anecdotes about Churchhill, his family, and many others. I read this as preparation for reading Gilbert's one-volume life of Churchill. I'm looking forward to it.
May 13, 2025
Great read
February 22, 2015
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and Gilbert's journey in finding the true Churchill. Initially hired by Randolph Churchill for a six month period to help him write his father's biography. Within a few months Winston Churchill died and three years later after Randolph's death he became the family's choice for biographer.
I've always been interested in research for biographies and was amazed at the length, success and failure of Gilbert's search. From a secretary who he only had initials and last name, but after a newspaper advert had letters, journals and additional leads.
The best part of the book is all the personal stories of Churchill's friends, colleagues and political enemies. From taking his turn to make tea for the breaks between brick laying, personally ensuring his secretaries fires were properly attended to and continuing to pay his secretary for year after her illness prevented her working. Sadly, the secretary passed away, but he ensured her daughters received an education. In the end a monumental man in history was human and Mr. Gilbert took decades to swift, organize and interview numerous people to write about Britain's "Greatest Britain."
Favorite tidbit: Winston Churchill dictated his first letter from the bath tub at the age of 14 to a fellow 16 year old student. Brave.
I've always been interested in research for biographies and was amazed at the length, success and failure of Gilbert's search. From a secretary who he only had initials and last name, but after a newspaper advert had letters, journals and additional leads.
The best part of the book is all the personal stories of Churchill's friends, colleagues and political enemies. From taking his turn to make tea for the breaks between brick laying, personally ensuring his secretaries fires were properly attended to and continuing to pay his secretary for year after her illness prevented her working. Sadly, the secretary passed away, but he ensured her daughters received an education. In the end a monumental man in history was human and Mr. Gilbert took decades to swift, organize and interview numerous people to write about Britain's "Greatest Britain."
Favorite tidbit: Winston Churchill dictated his first letter from the bath tub at the age of 14 to a fellow 16 year old student. Brave.
November 11, 2012
A marvelous read!
Sir Martin located so many of the known and unknown players of Churchill's World War II years and interviewed them personally, many at the end of their lives.
Churchill's 'wilderness years' were anything but, as this historical record reveals. An engrossing read for fans of the lion of the 20th Century and a 'must' for students of history. The research process revealed is part of the engine driving this tale.
Sir Martin located so many of the known and unknown players of Churchill's World War II years and interviewed them personally, many at the end of their lives.
Churchill's 'wilderness years' were anything but, as this historical record reveals. An engrossing read for fans of the lion of the 20th Century and a 'must' for students of history. The research process revealed is part of the engine driving this tale.
Want to read
June 25, 2016The 6 volumes of his life are a towering achievement but not many people have the leisure, this side of retirement, to savour all 7,285 pages. In the meantime there could be no better introduction than Gilbert's highly entertaining account of his methods of writing, and his search for buried treasure: eye witnesses whose recollections had never been recorded, & caches of docs that had lain hidden for decades. #history #biography
January 4, 2009
This is a great introduction to Churchill and reading about Churchill. There has been so much written about Churchill and if you are just beginning to explore him and his life this could be daunting. I find introduction books like this are very helpful to assist the reader on the subject and possible where to begin. Introduction books are great resources.
February 28, 2008
My inspiration in my own search of Churchill.
April 3, 2013
Gives fascinating insights not only into the historian's craft in general, but into Gilbert's search for, study of, and in effect living with Churchill for more than forty years.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews