The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965

The Last Lion #3

by William Manchester, Paul Reid

Spanning the years of 1940-1965, The Last Lion picks up shortly after Winston Churchill became Prime Minister—when his tiny island nation stood alone against the overwhelming might of Nazi Germany. The Churchill conjured up by William Manchester and Paul Reid is a man of indomitable courage, lightning fast intellect, and an irresistible will to action.

The Last Lion brilliantly recounts how Churchill organized his nation's military response and defense; compelled FDR into supporting America's beleaguered cousins, and personified the "never surrender" ethos that helped the Allies win the war, while at the same time adapting himself and his country to the inevitable shift of world power from the British Empire to the United States.

More than twenty years in the making, The Last Lion presents a revelatory and unparalleled portrait of this brilliant, flawed, and dynamic leader. This is popular history at its most stirring.

Genres: Biography, History, Nonfiction, Politics, World War II, War, Biography Memoir

1182 pages, Hardcover

First published November 6, 2012

About the author

William Raymond Manchester was an American author and biographer, notable as the bestselling author of 18 books that have been translated into 20 languages.He was awarded the National Humanities Medal and the Abraham Lincoln Literary Award.

Reviews

[Lizzy · Rating 5 out of 5]

To read a well written biography, and memoirs for that fact, can be an exceptional experience. The Last Lion 3: Winston Spencer Churchill, Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965 is a superb example. I loved all three parts of Winston Churchill's life story. Despite the death of William Manchester, Paul Reid did a superb job of concluding it. It was not the same, and we couldn't expected it to be just from the fact they are two different individuals, but was exceptionally done.

I suffered along with Churchill the hard first years of WWII and with each setback the English, and later the Allies, endured. It was staggering to read about the difficulties the Americans and the English faced when dealing with each other, both politically and militarily, although I should have expected it. As a matter of fact, Britain was not prepared for war as a result of the appeasement that prevailed in Britain before the war. At times, if we didn't know the outcome, it could lead to the impression that they could have easily lost the war. I breathed much better after things start to turn on in their favor.

I think Churchill's determination to win the war and destroy Hitler, and his boldness from the start of the war, was crucial for victory. At the same time, it was astonishing to read how such a political master like him, manufactured his own downfalls. From what I understood his loyalty-above-all nature, besides his old-fashioned ways, heavily contributed to victory.

“In many ways Churchill remained a nineteenth-century man, and by no means a common man. He fit the mold of what Henry James called in English Hours “persons for whom the private machinery of ease has been made to work with extraordinary smoothness.”

Reid grants the reader an comprehensive study of Churchill from WWII to his death in 1965. I enjoyed above all reading Churchill's own words, that Reid quoted him frequently, and I often found myself amused and impressed with his genius. Churchill was obstinate in his defense of the British Empire and lived to see it crumble before he died.

The Last Lion 3 is not just a biography, but much more, indeed it is a superb history masterpiece. He expands his work and grants the reader glimpses on personalities as Franklin D. Roosevelt and Stalin; as well as many key military leaders such as Eisenhower. It is an exceptional work, another of my all-time-favorites. Not to be missed!

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the final volume of the Churchill biography, Manchester hands over the reins to Paul Reid. Hand-picked by the great biographer after a debilitating stroke, Reid picks up with Churchill holding the reins of power as Hitler has begun his sweep across Europe. Using Manchester’s style of historical writing and attention to detail, Reid plays the storyteller of the greatest part of Churchill’s life, the Second World War. The narrative shows both triumphs and pitfalls that could turn Churchill from British statesman and hero to sell-out and defeated politician. Full of little known stories related to Churchill’s time in power, Reid masters the art of completing this major biographical tome. A must-read conclusion to a masterful biography, perfect for any reader with a passion for history and politics.

Reid presents Churchill has a fearless leader in Volume Three, whose main focus is World War II. While the Nazis take swaths of land across Europe, Asia, and Africa, Churchill holds strong for his people and never bows to the constant assault being waged against him. Even as the bombing campaign begins in Britain itself, Churchill tries to calm his people, through radio addresses and in speeches on the floor of the House of Commons. In the early pages of the book, Reid reminds the reader that Churchill was chosen to head up a coalition government when Chamberlain failed miserably to deal with Hitler, and it is this trust placed at his feet that is tested from the outset. Churchill also keeps his War Cabinet in the loop as best he can, while trying to forge much needed alliances and keep Britain from trading in the Union Jack for the swastika. Even post-War, when Churchill’s Conservatives go down to epic defeat, he does not let that worry him. His return to power, the first Churchill Government chosen by the people, in 1951 brings about a swan song filled with popular support, as well as those around him. No matter what the political stripes one wears, respect supersedes all when it comes to Winston.

Tied to his leadership within Britain, Churchill hones his skills as a great statesman. Reid depicts Churchill as the only man directing a war against the likes of Hitler and Mussolini while Stalin remains on the sidelines (having signed a pact of non-aggression with Hitler) and FDR hums and haws, hiding behind Congress’ Neutrality Act. By negotiating with the latter to send aid through a myriad of back channels and jumping on the opportunity to bring Stalin into the fold after the Nazis march into Russia in 1941 (a truly ironic act on Churchill’s part, as he loathes anything communist), Churchill is able to forge the Allied alliance to battle against the Nazis and eventually the Japanese to push them back and eventually nullify their gains. Reid highlights throughout the negotiation abilities of Churchill to bring about a single goal, VICTORY. Even as the Nazis are crushed and the spoils are being divides (as well as devoured by the Great Russian Bear), Churchill stays stately and tries his best to forge a post-War world in which all can live happily. Little did he know that appeasement of Stalin would forecast a lengthy standoff with the US.

Reid presents a strong biography, latching on wonderfully to Manchester’s previous two volumes. As Reid explained to the reader in the preface, while the book was nowhere near complete, extensive notes and documents were left for him to thoroughly link Churchill’s life with the foundation laid up to 1940 Reid’s powerful narrative brings the statesman to life, highlighting some of his quirks that emerged in his youth and early adulthood. With thorough anecdotes and a powerful narrative to keep the book moving forward (note: much of the first 900 pages of the book are centred around World War II, a literary quagmire that requires a strong ability to inject impetus), Reid succeeds in enthralling the reader throughout while providing scores of teaching moments for the avid history buff.

While the book (the entire series) is a strong biography, it is also a powerful historical narrative. Delving as deep as any book this writer has read on either World Wars or political gatherings, Reid and Manchester bring the minutiae that are glossed over by the history books to life. The intricate details of the steps leading to major decisions help the reader not only have a better understanding of the key players in the decision-making process but also the impetus for the decision. Not since reading Margaret MacMillan’s Paris 1919, has this writer seen such an attention to detail on every nation involved and the piecemeal dismantling of territory by the victors. Reid is to be commended for all his hard work in this regard, though Manchester did begin the process with some intricate discussions leading up to and including the Great War.

As an overall series, the books are extremely powerful and take into account the ebbs and flows of Churchill’s life, both personal and political. Many people play roles in his life, coming and going at will, and none are too small to mention by either Manchester or Reid. This writer is reminded of Robert A. Caro’s work on LBJ, where they author paced himself and wrote of the intricate details of the politician’s life and personal relationships, all of which played a role in his rise to power. Any reader who has the time and is not scared by a plethora of information will surely soak up this series (both in fact) and love the outcome. Churchill is not a perfect man, nor do the authors try to make him appear to be. He is, however, a man who faced much adversity and encountered many roadblocks, around which he had to navigate in order to reach the pinnacle of his political and personal success.

If there was a single downfall to the book (and the series?) it would be that the last 20 years of Churchill’s life turn into a roller-coaster ride, with historical blips along the way. Realising that this would violate Manchester’s promise of a trilogy must be kept in mind, but just as the first volume offers a great deal of history outside of war (and within the House), the waning years of Churchill’s life deserve adequate attention. True, the man was no longer seeking power, but it still seems a pity to relegate years to a page or two.

Kudos to Messrs. Manchester and Reid for so spellbinding a biography. So much attention to detail went into the books and there is so much that the reader can get from them. Along with Caro, perhaps one of the best political biographies this writer has ever read.

Long live the memory of Winston Churchill!

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Manchester chose wisely.

Having written the first two volumes of The Last Lion, and then taken ill, Manchester could have tried an amanuensis, could have named any of hundreds of credentialed historians, or, for that matter, could just have let the project die unfulfilled. Yet he chose Paul Reid, who came with Marines to visit the author, to talk of the war and baseball. And came, invited, again and again. Like those of us who have waited 24 years, Paul Reid must surely have known he held a sacred trust. He honored it.

This is the best book I read this year. And it was a good year. It covers a topic (The Second World War) I know fairly well. Reid tells the story with confidence. This is not an historiography. There's no waffling based on competing scholarly opinions. This is what happened, he seems to say. I like that approach, and not just because I happened to agree with his telling.

Churchill is here a great man. But he is wrong fully half the time, whether by the philosophy of the reader or the actual verdict of events as told by our narrator. He is painted both prescient and naive. It must have been exhausting to have dined with him.

Always there was language. Churchill: When I get to to Heaven I mean to spend the a considerable portion of my five million years in painting, and so get to the bottom of the subject. But then I shall require a still gayer palette than I get here. There will be a whole range of wonderful new colours which will delight the celestial eye.

Churchill's sarcastic barbs are well-documented. Reid reminded me of one: When, in 1960, Churchill was told of Bevan's death, he mumbled a few words of moderate respect, then paused for effect before asking, "Are you sure he's dead?"

Reid too can turn a phrase. Telling of Churchill's public forays while V-1 rockets scudded into London, Reid writes, "Although Cherwell calculated that the odds were 648,000 to one against a rocket falling on Churchill on any given night, it was a time when only optimists bought green bananas."

I like this: The alliance was looking all hat and no cattle. And this: Yet Churchill, in presuming that the bonhomie he found at the president's table carried weight, failed to grasp a basic tenet of American politics: good cheer is non-binding. Only the U.S. Congress can bind, and Churchill did not understand just how binding the U.S. Congress can be. Oh, and this moment, with Churchill in Germany, finally, as the war was almost won: Later that day, as recorded by Brooke, Churchill took himself on a long trek down to the river, where "on arrival he solemnly relieved himself in the Rhine." Brooke could only see Churchill's back, but was sure the Old Man wore a "boyish grin of contentment."

Another reviewer sniffed at the audacity of someone trying to finish Manchester's work, quoting a paragraph by Manchester from one of the first two volumes as 'proof' that it would be ridiculous to try. The review seemed to be written before giving Volume 3 a chance. Surely it was written before reading this from Reid:

Sometime in the 1970s, the Fuhrer's remains were exhumed and incinerated for a second time. The ashes were flushed into the city's sewer system, where they suffered the fate of Mary Shelley's monster, borne away by the wave and lost in the darkness and distance.

One nit to pick. Reid writes, "Roosevelt (a truly religious man)...." No. First, it's the first I've ever heard anyone say that about Roosevelt. But there was no footnote or other explanation. Second, such a statement invites more discussion. What the hell does "a truly religious man" mean anyhow? Roosevelt was first a pragmatist and politician. He could lie to a man's face if it served his purpose and it often did. Refuse a boat full of Jewish refugees, knowing they would all die instead, because it would mean the loss of political capital. Reid even writes that Roosevelt "always enjoyed other people's discomfort." How does that square with a "truly religious man"? Roosevelt may have read the Book of Common Prayer, but that proves nothing. Did he read it as he committed adultery?

As I said, just a nit.

This is a magisterial work, magnificent. It was more than worth the wait.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This outstanding narrative biography covers Churchill’s life from his return to government as Lord of the Admiralty soon after war broke out and on through his six years as prime minister during the war and beyond that to his death in 1965. The unfolding of the whole war from Churchill’s perspective was so compelling I almost didn’t want the book to end, despite a commitment that involved weeks with the audiobook version. It felt pretty mind expanding to be commuting along or stacking wood for the winter while being transported to the decision-making nexus around Churchill with the fate of nations at stake. All the challenges he and Britain dealt with in the management of the war effort made for quite a human story. After being on the sidelines of government for a decade, he was more than ready to drive ecstatically forward with his hopeful plans, hungry for their realization, but he often was subjected to the agonies of his schemes being thwarted and of the cost in death and disaster resulting from many of the choices made. This human element behind all the fateful trajectories of the war seems essential for me to get past the otherwise indigestible evidence pointing to a failure of civilization, the smoking gun for which is the more than 50 million lives lost.

Reid took over the task of completing this third volume of Manchester’s trilogy on Churchill when strokes damaged his ability to write. He emulates Manchester’s narrative approach, but not his lofty style that often was laced with quirky metaphors and touches of humor. Reid noted in the introduction that Manchester was not an academic. Instead:
He was a storyteller who made history accessible by masterful use of the dramatists’ tools—plot, setting, and character. He and I often discussed this approach, and agreed that the biographer must get out of the way of his subject, who should be placed squarely within his times and be allowed to speak and act for himself.

The presentation confirms the general consensus that Churchill played a critical role in keeping up the morale and determination of Britain and her allies during the war. Also admirable was his engagement of Roosevelt in an effective way that brought essential supplies and armaments from America into the war effort through the Lend Lease program. His capacity as a military strategist and as a wise shaper of national destinies in various treaties along the way and at war’s end are more open to criticism and debate, and Reid gives plenty of fuel to both sides of these issues. And he is far from hagiography when he covers the topic of how adept or inept Churchill was in managing people and political coalitions.

The beauty in the tale of his life is the lively interplay between the paradoxical aspects of his personality. Was he mired to his detriment in imperialist Victorian mentality, or was it the core of his strength and optimism (i.e. right making might) that allowed him to ultimately drive past all obstacles to the defeat of Hitler? Was he unrealistically optimistic or was he prescient? Time and again, the maturity that kept him on his feet gave way to a proclivity to engage in childlike imagination and play. Could it be that the former depended vitally on the latter? His talent as a persuasive and engaging speaker seemed to keep bouncing up against his hunger for bullying or his unseemly pleasure in outsmarting his opponents in debate, often involving a special genius at sarcastic irony and innuendo. Churchill could go into rages when foiled or disappointed by colleagues, but knuckling down with all his energy to the tasks at hand was his true pattern. His alcohol drinking was exaggerated according to Manchester, who speaks of him nursing a weak drink for hours, but Reid finds support for a nearly continuous and massive intake matched by some special constitution that mitigated it interfering with his functioning. Similarly, the memoir of Churchill’s doctor led Manchester to infer he was a fellow sufferer with him in frequent states of depression, but Reed makes a pragmatic argument that Churchill showed the pinnacle of mental health defined by Maslow as the state of effective self-actualization.

Other aspects of his personality seem at odds with his accomplishments. Despite being an aristocrat used to having all menial tasks done by servants, he couldn’t resist frequently getting down and dirty, whether playing with abandon with his grandchildren or, in the quiet years, building brick walls or digging a pond at his Chartwell estate. During the Blitz, he perpetually toured bombed out neighborhoods in London after a Luftwaffe raid, connecting with the suffering of the common people. And even though he served as Defense Minister concurrently with Prime Minister, he took every available opportunity to get as close as possible to the action of a battlefield or to micro-manage battle preparations of his generals. The former reflected his tendencies in his long military history starting with his first soldiering in the Boer War. At times this aspect of his personality seemed to be the signature of a macho nut or of a regression to a child playing with toy soldiers. Yet in many cases as a leader of the war effort his tendency to take risky action in marshalling British forces to achieve an aim proved invaluable to success of battle campaigns. In other cases wiser heads prevailed when the risks outweighed the likelihood of failure. Roosevelt once remarked that Churchill would throw out 100 ideas, of which at least a couple would be brilliant.

All these sides come out in Reid’s artful presentation from the vast materials he mined over the six years it took to complete the book. From the introduction, it is clear that the book is primarily Reid’s work as energized by years of discussion of Manchester’s outlook. His friendship with Manchester that developed after journalistic coverage of a marine veterans reunion made a doorway to helping the writer-in-residence at a liberal arts college get past his extreme writer’s block. Reid gained his confidence with a draft of the segment on the Battle of Britain, so after his strokes Manchester engaged him to finish the whole thing under his guidance. But after his death in 2004 and Reed’s inability to decipher the many boxes of coded notes from Manchester’s decade of research on the project, Reid had to go back to the same resources and forge his own path. This included transcripts of Manchester’s interviews, Churchill’s own massive account of his war years (“History will judge us kindly,” Churchill told Roosevelt and Stalin in 1943, “because I shall write the history”), transcriptions of all his speeches, and the memoirs and diaries of contemporaries, which were often critical. (For the fascinating story behind this book, see A Problem of Churchillian Proportions from the New York Times Magazine, Nov. 1, 2012.)

From what I read of professional reviews of this book, the critics take Reed to task for not digesting newly available materials and historical research from the many years since Manchester started on the volume. Reed also showed some limitations in understanding the British form of government. But for me as an average reader, the reading of this was a marvelous experience. I learned a lot about the history of the war for many countries, though not in the organized way which historians would present according to campaigns, themes, and interpretative positions elucidated by hindsight. Instead, the reader typically experiences events as Churchill dealt with them, with important activity occurring on many fronts and spheres simultaneously.

At the right time we get on the world stage a man who had reason to call World War 2 the “Unnecessary War.” Warning about and standing up to Hitler had been Churchill’s clarion call for nearly ten years while on the sidelines of government, a period wonderfully covered in Manchester’s Volume 2 of “The Last Lion.” The rounds of appeasement in agreements with the Nazi government carried out by Baldwin and then Chamberlain at the helm shamefully failed in stages, as first Austria was declared a Germany’s, then Czechoslovakia was crushed, and finally Poland was invaded and divided with Russia. The French and British commitment to Poland brought them both into the war. A crisis of confidence in Chamberlain led to formation of a coalition government and entry for Churchill to join the cabinet as naval minister. For over six months there was plenty of preparation but almost no fighting save for a botched campaign to fortify Norway with British forces. The period led to some to call the situation the “Phoney War.” It was not so phoney to the Poles who experienced must slaughter of their citizenry and early imprisonment and enslavement of its Jews. Churchill was in a helpless position as he witnessed the French army make only a minor salient into Poland. Finally, with the invasion of France and Chamberlain forced to step down, Churchill’s rise to Prime Minister put him in the position to lead the war effort.

At this point, I have to stop on details about the war as there is just too much here that fascinated me. I’ll just throw out a few questions and my leanings on them. Of most personal import to me is the question of whether I consider the pervasive bombing of German populations in cities by the Allies a war crime or was it a critical step in breaking their spirit? I come down on the former. Initially the Luftwaffe targeted military targets in England, but it took only one case of an accidental bombing of a civilian neighborhood for Churchill to unleash a prearranged agreement for the Brits to begin civilian bombing in Germany. Whereas the entire four months of the Battle of Britain resulted in about 40,000 dead, the Allied bombings in Germany caused over 300,000 deaths, with the fire bombings of Hamburg and Dresden alone causing 45,000 and 25,000 deaths respectively.

How much was his investment in the North Africa campaign a waste of precious resources or a necessary move to prevent the Nazis taking the Suez Canal and the oil fields of the Middle East? The latter was borne out, but not the clear outcome at the time. Was he wise or foolish to keep pushing for diverting troops to the Balkans? Greece ending up outside the Iron Curtain at the end of the war can be attributed to his actions, but if he had his way maybe Bulgaria and Yugoslavia could have been vouchsafed for the Allies before Russia came sweeping in. Was he suckered by Stalin or was Churchill and Roosevelt’s negotiations and teamwork with this devil the best that could be done to win the war? The jury is still out on that one.

I close with a few choice examples of Reid’s narrative. On his combative style of debate, Sir Ian Jacob noted that he would “debate, browbeat, badger, and cajole those who were opposed to him, or whose work was under discussion.” Reid’s summary:
Churchill did not thrust and parry in such duels; he knew only how to thrust. Only later did it become clear that those who vehemently disagreed with him, and stated their case clearly, were those who won his respect.

On how boredom was an assault on Churchill’s equanimity:
“Idleness was a concept unknown to him,” recalled his daughter Mary. Idle ness was the handmaiden to boredom, and boredom was an enemy to be vanquished. When Chruchill found himself bored, recalled Scotland Yard’s Inspector Thompson, he became “a kicker of waste baskets, with an unbelievably ungoverned bundle of bad temper.”

He quotes an insider on how the official Chequers residence was the site of “long and liquid weekends” and “nobody got as wound up unwinding as Churchill did”:
The Old Man relaxed with a fury, and always with a quotient of wit and good cheer in inverse proportion to what might fairly be expected from a man who had just suffered a terrible week.

On Churchill’s lack of punctuality:
He was always late for trains…”Winston is a sporting man,” Clementine once told his bodyguard. “He likes to give the train a chance to get away.”

How his preparations for a speech in Parliament involved intense efforts to formulate just the right phrases and last-minute shenanigans that could drive his staff nuts:
The prelude to a speech in the House of Commons was opera bouffe. …His bath was a favorite venue for speech preparation (he was proud of being able to control the taps with his toes while he dictated). In the midst of other tasks, he would start muttering phrases to himself: “To the gates of India”; “this bloodthirsty guttersnipe”: “this star of England.” When a cabinet minister called Germans “sheep,” Churchill snarled, “Carnivorous sheep.” …When Hitler was the subject, Churchill struck and struck again … He fertilized every phrase with imagery, and weeded them of any word that could choke his message. He tried them out over dinner with colleagues, with different adjectives, different emphasis, to measure their rhythms and to hear how they sounded. …The climax of his ruminations would come on the day of delivery. Always at least fifteen minutes late, he might still be in bed, dictating the final draft to a typist, or inking in changes, when he should have been on his way to Parliament. Anxious whips would be telephoning him from the House, his staff would be begging him to hurry, his valet would be dressing him and flicking cigar ash from his shirt … Meanwhile, messengers held the elevator, and his chauffeur, outside, would be gunning the engine. Finally he would totter out, still dressing, tucking his spectacles and cigar case and loose cigars and his little snuffbox into sundry jacket pockets, checking the numbers pages to be sure they were in the right order.

On his attitude on his buddy Lord Beaverbrook, whom he tapped to get aircraft production up by hook or by crook:
Beaverbrook , he told Jock Colville, was “twenty-five percent thug, fifteen percent crook and the remainder a combination of genius and real goodness of heart.”

On the unusual features of Air Chief Marshall Hugh Dowding, who many credit as most responsible for winning a war of attrition in the Battle of Britain but whom Churchill failed to support when proponents of large-scale definitive air battles ousted him:
He was a difficult man to like. Ever since Trafalgar, Britons had expected their military heroes to be Nelsons, and Dowding was far from that. Tall, frail, and abstemious, he was a bird-watching widower whose career had suffered from tactlessness, unorthodox view, and a remarkable lack of social graces. That he dabbled in spiritualism and was a vegetarian only augmented the perception of his flyboys that he was a strange duck.

Reid gets particularly eloquent over Churchill’s immersion in history:
In those such as Churchill, history, by way of imagination and discipline, becomes part of personal memory, no less so than childhood recollections of the first swim in the ocean or the first day of school. Churchill did not simply observe the historical continuum; he made himself part of it. Classical venues, and Churchill’s “memory” of them—from the Pillars of Hercules and on around the Mediterranean …--informed his identity in much the same way his memories of his ancestral home, Blenheim Place, did …He may have been born a Victorian, but he had turned himself into a Classical man. He did not live in the past; the past lived on in him. Harry Hopkins, who came to know Churchill well, noted the mystical relationship he had with the past, especially the military past: “He was involved not only in the battles of the current war, but of the whole past from Cannae to Gallipoli.” Alexander the Great, Boudicca, Hadrian, King Harold, Prince Hal, Pitt, and of course his luminous ancestor Marlborough had all played their parts in earlier scenes of the same play and upon the same stage that Churchill and his enemies now played their parts.

I leave you with a lasting visual image of the man to treasure:
Churchill’s most endearing trait was also his most remarkable. He was probably the most amusing warlord in history. His very appearance could endlessly entertain his family and staff. On June 16, Colville took urgent dispatches to the P.M.’s room and “found him lying in bed, looking just like a rather nice pig, clad in a silk vest.” Smoking a long cigar and stroking his cat, Nelson, he prowled the corridors of No. 10 wearing a soldier’s steel helmet …, a crimson dressing gown adorned with a golden dragon, and monogrammed slippers complete with pom-poms.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

The third and last volume in this extensive biography of Winston Churchill. This book is very much about Churchill but also very much about the times in which he lived. I was riveted for most of the 50 hours. That may seem long but it never feels too long. I spent the last 2 weeks listening to (living with) all 3 volumes, 133 hours total, and I was sorry when I came to the end. A stunning accomplishment. William Manchester was a fabulous writer who knew how to keep his readers interested. Highly recommended.

[Andy Klein · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am sorry to say that Volume 3 did not come close to the two that preceded it. Lost was Manchester's turn of the phrase and grandiose style. This volume focused far too much on the minutiae of the war and far too little on the 20 years that followed it.

I challenge any reader to find any passage that even approaches this one from Volume I:

England's new leader, were he to prevail, would have to stand for everything England's decent, civilized Establishment had rejected. They viewed Adolph Hitler as the product of complex and historical forces. Their successor would have to be a passionate mannequian who saw the world as a medieval struggle to the death between the powers of good and the powers of evil, who held that individuals are responsible for their actions and that the German dictator was therefore wicked. A believer in marshall glory was required, one who saw splendor in ancient parades of victorious legions through Persepolis and who could rally the nation to brave the coming German fury. An embodiment of fading Victorian standards was wanted, a tribune for honor, loyalty, duty and the supreme virtue of action, one who would never compromise with iniquity who could create a sublime mood and thus give men heroic visions of what they were and might become. Like Adolf Hitler he would have to be a leader of intuitive genius, a born demagogue in the original sense of the word, a believer in the supremacy of his race and his national destiny, an artist who knew how to gather the blazing light of history into his prism and then distort it to his ends, an embodiment of inflexible resolution who could impose his will and his imagination on his people—a great tragedian who understood the appeal of martyrdom and could tell his followers the worst, hurling it to them like great chunks of bleeding meat, persuading them that the year of Dunkirk would be one in which it would be equally good to live or to die, who could be if necessary be just as cruel and cunning and just as ruthless as Hitler but who could win victories without enslaving populations or preaching super naturalism or foisting off myths of his infallibility or destroying or even warping the libertarian institutions he had sworn to preserve. Such a man, if he existed, would be England's last chance. In London there was such a man.

Manchester spent the whole of Volume II building to this moment, setting the stage for Churchill to burst forward and save the civilized world. And what does Reid do with the most epic and perfect of lead ins? He gives us a bunch of facts and figures and events and dates, but never captures the essence of his subject or at least this reader's imagination. It's like Shakespeare dying after Act IV of Hamlet and having George Will write the final act. Or having John Williams finish up the last movement of the Ninth Symphony for Beethoven. Reid's effort is a serviceable, even a good biography of Churchill during the WWII years. But it is not the masterpiece that was the first two volumes.

[robin friedman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Defender Of The Realm

"Defender of the Realm, 1940 -- 1965" is the final volume of William Manchester's massive three-volume biography, "The Last Lion", of Winston Churchill (1874 -- 1965). The first volume, published in 1983, titled "Visions of Glory", covered Churchill's life from 1874 -- 1932, while the second volume, published in 1988, titled simply "Alone, covered the years 1932 -- 1940. This new sweeping third volume covers Churchill's life beginning with his ascension to the office of Prime Minister in 1940. It focuses upon the WW II years, follows Churchill during the years between 1945 and his second period as Prime Minister from 1951 -- 1955, and concludes with Churchill's years of comparative retirement up to his death. The biography was a near lifetime project for Manchester (1922 -- 2004). Manchester had researched the third volume of the trilogy, prepared well-organized and voluminous notes, and done some of the writing. Near the end of his life, however, Manchester realized he would be unable to complete the third volume. He selected journalist Paul Reid to complete the work.

The result of Manchester's and Reid's efforts is a detailed, dense study of 1200 pages. The book offers a thorough, multi-faceted look at the complex statesman that was Winston Churchill, in his determination, devotion to Great Britain and to civilization, brilliance, and frequent pettiness. Because Churchill's personal life was inextricably intertwined with his public life, this book goes far beyond biography. It is a masterful political and military history of the WW II years and, to a lesser extent, of the years following.

Churchill the man is most in focus in the 50-page "Preamble" to the book. Manchester and Reid offer a summation of Churchill's personality, leadership style, political, religious, and social beliefs, family and more. The Preamble offers an excellent overview to the momentous events described in the lengthy remainder of the volume.

The volume consists of eight large parts, the first of which begins in May 1940 and follows Churchill and WW II through December, 1940. Part two covers 1941, culminating in the United States' entry into the war and on Churchill's extensive efforts to get the United States involved. Part three covers military action in 1942, focusing on the alliance between Churchill and Roosevelt. Part four covers the period November 1942 -- December 1943, as plans for the invasion of France are discussed at length and ultimately agreed to. The readers sees a great deal of Churchill, Roosevelt and his aides, and Stalin. There is extended description of Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union. Part five covers the period between December, 1943 and the Normandy invasion in June 1944. Part six takes the narrative from Normandy to the German and Japanese surrenders. Part seven, less detailed than the earlier parts, covers the years between 1945- 1955, including Churchill's famed "iron curtain" speech in March,1946, in Fulton, Missouri, and his election as Prime Minister. The final brief part of the book covers the final ten years, 1955 -- 1965, of Churchill's long life.

There is a great deal to be learned about Churchill, about leadership, and heroism from this book. The most eloquent, moving sections of the work are sections covering early 1940 --1941, following the evacuation at Dunkirk. Great Britain truly stood alone for more than one year and was widely expected to fall to Hitler. That it did not was due in large measure to Churchill's fortitude and strength and to the respect in which he was held by the subjects of Great Britain. The reader sees different aspects of Churchill as the war proceeds and the political and military situation develops. Manchester and Reid spend much time on the land, sea, and air wars, the different fronts in the Soviet Union, France, the Balkans, and Italy, and in the War with Japan. The book offers both a political and a military education about the events of the war years. The authors develop well the tension between the British, Churchillian view of the aims of the war and the views of President Roosevelt and the United States. The authors emphasize Churchillian's devotion to the British Empire as contrasted with the American commitment to end colonialism. Hence to overall title of the Trilogy and characterization of Churchill as "The Last Lion".

The book is lucidly written although in its length it flags in places. In its history, it taught me much about the world in which I have lived. I also learned a great deal about the dauntless figure of Winston Churchill. The authors portray him, and properly so, as the seminal figure of the 20th Century. This lengthy, thoughtful book will be worth the attention of readers who wish to understand the 20th Century and one of the few true 20th Century heroes.

Robin Friedman

[Brad Lyerla · Rating 5 out of 5]

On May 10, 1940, King George VI accepted Neville Chamberlain’s resignation as prime minister of the United Kingdom and its empire. Early that morning, Hitler had unleashed the German blitzkrieg on the Low Countries initiating the western front of the European Theater of the greatest war in human history. Before the day ended, King George had appointed the sixty-five-year-old Winston Churchill to replace Chamberlain and lead the government and its war effort to oppose Hitler. Thus, begins DEFENDER OF THE REALM, third volume of William Manchester’s masterly biography of Winston Churchill, THE LAST LION.

Manchester died before he had written very much of DEFENDER. It was completed by Paul Reid, who worked from Manchester’s extensive notes. Knowing his time was limited, Manchester invited Reid to collaborate on DEFENDER in the apparent hope that together they would finish before Manchester’s illness disabled him. That plan did not work and Reid finished DEFENDER alone. I am happy to say that he was completely faithful to the excellence of Manchester’s first two volumes of THE LAST LION.

Most people are familiar with Churchill’s brilliance and courage during the first year of the war against the Nazis. Almost single-handedly, he rallied the people of Britain and their government to mount a courageous defense against Hitler’s war machine when the country was shamefully ill-prepared militarily, financially and psychologically. England was isolated. France had already capitulated. The Soviet Union was steadily retreating from the German blitzkrieg in the east. And the US was reluctant to enter a European war again. England’s prestige and ability to wage war experienced a grave setback at Dunkirk. A lesser leader than Churchill would have made a deal with the Nazis and Hitler was ready to give England terms. Reid tells the story of this first year of the British war skillfully. Forgive the cliché, but this is history that reads like a novel. It is compelling even when we know the story and its outcome.

But DEFENDER is much more than a war story. Equally fascinating is the character study focusing on the relationships between Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin. Having saved western civilization from Nazism, Churchill was ill used by Roosevelt. Churchill and Roosevelt then were ill used by Stalin who emerges as the most Machiavellian of the three.

Roosevelt wanted concessions from Churchill in return for America’s help. Roosevelt delayed the US's entry into the war while he negotiated with congress and Britain. Churchill was easy pickings. He had a naive and romantic faith in America, where his mother was born and raised. He seemed to believe that America could always be counted on to do the right thing. He envisioned a post-war world in which America and the British Empire together would preside over an enlightened world dominated by the values of western commercial democracy. While touching to me as a reader, that was not a vision shared by Roosevelt who distrusted British Imperialism. Roosevelt set in motion a number of policies intended to bring self-government to the British protectorates around the globe, including India, the shining jewel of the Empire. Churchill, burdened by his romanticized notions of America, simply failed to understand or resist Roosevelt’s policies that ultimately would undermine the Empire that Churchill dearly loved.

Stalin out-maneuvered them both. He was willing to sacrifice countless Soviet lives in order to win a war of attrition on the eastern front. Such a strategy would have been unthinkable to the Americans or the Brits. But Stalin’s ruthless conduct of his theater of the war gave him an advantage in diplomacy. He knew that he was soaking up the majority of the Wehrmacht’s attention and that the Brits and Americans knew it too. He also sensed that the Brits and Americans were hesitant to mount a western front on mainland Europe against Hitler. So he exacted concessions in money and weaponry until the D-Day invasion. Later, then dealing with Truman and Churchill’s successor Clement Attlee, Stalin continued to exact concessions that enabled the USSR to establish most of Eastern Europe as a Soviet satellite.

Roosevelt was dead by the time Stalin’s post-war strategy began to unfold in Eastern Europe and Churchill recognized it only after he was out of office. But once he saw Stalin’s strategy for what it was, Churchill became one of the West’s most insightful and savage critics of Soviet expansionism.

There is so much more that could be said about this extraordinary biography. Churchill’s importance cannot be over-stated and his story is fascinating. As I read, I thought more than once that Churchill was able to rise to his unique moment in history precisely because he was from another time. He was a 19th Century man facing down the great threat of the 20th century, totalitarianism. He was singularly effective in meeting this challenge because he did not suffer from the ambiguity and fecklessness of the 20th century. His clarity and resolve was rooted in the 19th century and it may have made a better 21st Century possible for many millions of people.

BPL: This review begs clarification on the subject of Churchill's 19th century value system and whether I admire that quality in him.

My answer is that, in another circumstance, I would not admire it. But in the unique moment of history that he occupied, it came in pretty handy. Men of his generation in England had no humility or self-doubt about how the world should be. That gave him an advantage in rallying his country to war against the Nazis.

Otherwise, and in most circumstances, I would not find that quality attractive in a leader. I like what Voltaire said a few centuries earlier: “Doubt is an uncomfortable condition, but certainty is absurd.”

[Mikey B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a magnificent conclusion to the life of Winston Churchill. It covers the period from May 1940 to when he died in January of 1965. It is the last volume of William Manchester’s trilogy on the life of this really oversized personality. This book just shines with so many stirring passages of the events of the era – Dunkirk, the air battles that saved England, El Alamein... His interaction and conflicts with those surrounding him, like Alan Brooke (Chief of the Imperial General Staff) and Harriman (America’s Lend-Lease representative), are well rendered.

Once he took the reigns of power Churchill is portrayed as the dominating force in England during the darkest days of World War II. After France had collapsed many felt that Hitler and Nazism were to be the New World Order. There were some in England (like Halifax) who wanted to reach an accommodation with Hitler. Not I said Churchill. He gave the voice of defiance to the Nazis – and what an eloquent voice it was. A voice that espoused liberalism and freedom in direct contrast to what was descending rapidly on Nazi occupied Europe.

Until the German invasion of the Soviet Union Churchill’s England stood alone – and after June, 1941, Churchill made it unequivocal that England stood with Stalin’s Soviet Union against the Nazi’s. We are given a view of Churchill as a man possessed of tremendous vitality. He looked over both overall facts and minute details – much to the annoyance of his military and political staff. Unlike Roosevelt, he could not delegate. Ideas continually poured forth at meetings, conferences, discussions - which could go on and on with Churchill doing most of the impassioned talking. He would constantly juggle different projects (like an invasion of Norway, expanding the war in Italy to the Balkans...) which may be the reason why he is seen as being reluctant to have the Normandy landings. For Churchill it was not enough to have just one project going on.

The only two individuals he could not dominate were Roosevelt and Stalin. Roosevelt, because he desperately required American military might to defeat the Nazis. Stalin, because after 1941 the Soviet Union was the main military opponent of Hitler’s Germany. Both Roosevelt and Churchill were duped and felt they could negotiate with Stalin. Stalin’s occupation of Eastern Europe showed how mislead they were.

Of the three volumes of Churchill’s life this is the best one (in my opinion) – not only due to the stupendous world events of that time period, but the writing style is exquisite and effervescent, and this on almost every page (and this book is over 1,050 pages!).

As a further note William Manchester (from my understanding) had little to do with the actual writing of this book. He basically left a series of disconnected interviews, notes...
(for more see http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/04/mag...)

This book is essentially the product of Paul Reid.

Also over 900 pages (of 1,055) are concerned with World War II. There is a splendid first chapter (called “Preamble”) which covers Churchill’s worldly or philosophical outlook.

And to make another remark, while I feel Churchill was most knowledgeable of events in Europe, I certainly do not share his views on maintaining the British Empire and colonialism.

And a particularly stirring passage from page 490 (my volume):
“The honorable fight for British survival made the war great for Churchill. His faith in the rightness of his cause and the valor of ordinary Englishmen was unbounded...he had won the allegiance of almost fifty million Britons gathered around wireless sets in homes and pubs, in West End clubs, and East End warehouses. Even as Singapore tottered, and as Rommel again drove toward Egypt... polls showed that 79 percent of Britons supported Churchill. These were people who, believing that peace was worth any price, had rejoiced in Britain’s betrayal of Czechoslovakia just four years earlier. His words then had failed to move them. Had they listened then, they would not have had to listen now as he told them of one disaster after another, and reminded them that he expected that they all go down fighting in defense of their country.

Now they listened, and Churchill persuaded them that the fate of mankind hung in the balance, and he roused their ardor, stitching the fabric of their resolution with gleaming threads of eloquence and optimism. Thus from June of 1940 to early 1942, at a time when defeat and enslavement of the Home Island seemed at first inevitable, then probable, and finally still quite possible, Churchill’s star continued to rise, to challenge the dark star of Hitler... The Fuhrer and Tojo were a pair of Genghis Kans bent upon the destruction of all that civilized men cherished. Churchill was determined to preserve it.”

[Steven Fisher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Then out spake brave Horatius

The Captain of the Gate:

“To every man upon this Earth

Death cometh soon or late.

And how can man die better

Than facing fearful odds,

For the ashes of his fathers

And the temples of his gods

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.

Winston Churchill

[CoachJim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have finished all 3 volumes of this Biography. It is simply the best Biography I have read.

[Bettie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Description: Spanning the years of 1940-1965, The Last Lion picks up shortly after Winston Churchill became Prime Minister—when his tiny island nation stood alone against the overwhelming might of Nazi Germany. The Churchill conjured up by William Manchester and Paul Reid is a man of indomitable courage, lightning fast intellect, and an irresistible will to action.

The Last Lion brilliantly recounts how Churchill organized his nation's military response and defense; compelled FDR into supporting America's beleaguered cousins, and personified the "never surrender" ethos that helped the Allies win the war, while at the same time adapting himself and his country to the inevitable shift of world power from the British Empire to the United States.

More than twenty years in the making, The Last Lion presents a revelatory and unparalleled portrait of this brilliant, flawed, and dynamic leader. This is popular history at its most stirring.

Book 2 is missing from my collection so I'll steam ahead into this third book.

William Manchester died before finishing this book and using the extensive notes, it was finished by Paul Reid

4* Book 1
WL Book 2
5* Book 3

[Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three hundred some odd pages in. I've read a fair amount about Churchill over the years, since reading the first two last lion books. There are a lot of good, and very good biographies of the man available. This is an excellent biography. It is more Paul Reid than William Manchester, but he has done an excellent job. He does not hesitate to leave the main narration to explain subtle points.

After I finished it, I forgot to update the review. This book is excellent

[Sonny · Rating 5 out of 5]

— “Yet though all saw him, all did not see him alike. He was a multifarious individual, including within one man a whole troupe of characters, some of them subversive of one another and none feigned.”
— William Manchester, The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Defender of the Realm

There are two modern historical figures who have most fascinated me: Theodore Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. The parallel between their careers is interesting. Both men switched parties; both rose to the highest elected office in their respective country; both served in the military with distinction; both came from backgrounds of privilege, but each did much to support progressive causes to aid the lower classes of citizens; both were considered by conventional political figures of the day to be “dangerous” in holding the controls of government, yet each excelled; and, perhaps most importantly, each possessed almost a super human level of energy and work ethic; both won a Nobel Prize; and both were authors. Teddy Roosevelt authored 18 books, while Churchill authored fifty-one.

Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin says that the leaders of nations are usually judged by how they handle crises. For Winston Churchill, it is clear that his vitality, charisma, and self-confidence made him the right person for his country at a critical moment in Britain’s history. The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Defender of the Realm is the third and final installment of William Manchester’s biography of Churchill. Although the book spans Churchill’s life from his appointment as prime minister in 1940 until his death in 1965, only one-tenth of it covers Churchill’s last 20 years; most of the book is devoted to Churchill’s leadership as British prime minister during World War II. Prior to reading the final volume, my greatest concern was the knowledge that the book was largely not written by William Manchester. Eight months before he died in 2004, Manchester asked his friend Paul Reid, then a journalist at the Palm Beach Post, to finish the book. Manchester had completed most of the research several years earlier and had begun work on the final volume. Manchester had written approximately a tenth of the eventual 1,054 pages when the project was halted in 1998 after he suffered two strokes. As it turns out, Reid has done a good job of creating a book that reads like Manchester. Certainly Reid has tried to maintain the spirit of the first two volumes.

As the book begins, Churchill pursued two crucial wartime objectives. The first was to inspire the British people in the fight against Nazi Germany, which was poised on the shores of the English Channel to invade Great Britain, even as they bombed England during the “Blitz.” Second, he sought to secure the support of the United States, even as President Franklin Roosevelt was fighting against the forces of isolationism that were gripping the American people.

— “The Führer’s Reich now basked in a splendorous Alpine dawn born of barbarity, deceit and sheer Teutonic will, Britain stood alone in twilight, awaiting the seemingly inevitable descent of darkness.”
— Paul Reid, The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Defender of the Realm

The Last Lion does a good job on this heroic phase when England stood alone against Hitler, a period that lasted until mid-June 1941. After the Soviet Union and the United States entered the war, the situation changed drastically, and the need for extraordinary valor diminished in importance.

After VE Day, despite Churchill’s unmatched popularity, his Conservative party was turned out in July 1945. Though devastated by the defeat, Churchill remained the party leader. He returned to office in 1951 to preside over a waning empire and escalating cold war until he finally retired in 1955.

While the author clearly admires Churchill, there is fortunately little here in the way of hero worship. They share accounts that do not always reflect well on the great man. Churchill becomes much more interesting when his flaws are acknowledged and his limitations exposed. The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Defender of the Realm is a worthy conclusion to Manchester's majestic biography of the man who was perhaps the most commanding statesman of the 20th century.

[Paul Szydlowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

It killed me to finish this book, it was so good. And finishing it almost killed me because there were so many passages that forced me to stop, consider and reread them, paragraph after paragraph. I suppose this is to be expected when great writing is matched with an even greater man. Churchill was a flawed, imperfect individual but he was perfect for the imperfect times in which he led Great Britain and the rest of the free world. One shudders to think what our world would look like today had he not been there then.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the first two volumes years ago and was awaiting the third, but as Manchester got older and older I was afraid he would never finish it. Evidently he was afraid too and finally enlisted journalist Paul Reid to finish it. Manchester had done most of the research. The book finally came out last fall.

Manchester is, in my opinion, one of the best writers on contemporary history, well history written for the general public at least, though his books are wide ranging including a biog of Mencken and The World Lit Only By Fire (about the Middle Ages). His memoir of the Pacific War, Goodbye, Darkness, is excellent. I'll never forget his saying at the end that he and his fellow soldiers welcomed the atomic bomb as a savior because they assumed their next task was the invasion of Japan which they assumed would be more deadly than the invasion of Normandy. He wrote a biography of MacArthur which I haven't read and a history of the US from 1932 to 1972 called The Glory and the Dream and of course The Death of a President which I've recently discovered is out of print which seems wrong somehow. That one I haven't read but do, luckily, have a copy. You might remember also The Arms of Krupp which made a big splash when it was published. Haven't read that either.

Obviously much of Manchester's oeuvre is focused on WWII, but he writes primarily about people, rather than events, and his genius is getting into the skins of the people he writes about and bringing to the reader the details that make the people real and the events understandable in human terms. In the first Churchill volume his treatment of Churchill's childhood was extensive with its focus on his playing with wooden soldiers and striving for the attention of his parents (which he rarely got) as well as the love and care he got from his nanny who gave him what the parents did not. Childhood takes up a good portion of that book. No other biographer that I've read does more than narrate the bare facts of Churchill's childhood. But obviously childhood is critical to understanding the man who was literally written off by his parents as dumb and unpromising.

But to this final volume. In 1940, Churchill became the war leader. [Read Lukacs' June 1940 for a detailed account of how that happened.] Churchill had served in WWI (and in The Boer War), in the field but also at the Admiralty, but he was best known for the disastrous events at Gallipoli which he championed but was not really responsible for the execution of. After the war and throughout the 30ies, he was seen as a warmonger, especially as the rise of Hitler caused him to champion the need for Britain to rearm. He continue to serve in Parliament (to which he was first elected during the reign of Victoria. In June of 1940, he was already 65 years old.

I listened to this book on tape and either the reader was good at doing Churchill's voice or they used actual recordings of Churchill (unlikely) and a marvelous portion of the book is Churchill's own words which, during the war, inspired the Brits to endure and resist in the face of what looked like a complete takeover of Europe by Hitler. Shortly after Churchill became PM, he presided over the the marvelous evacuation of soldiers (not only Brits but some Poles and French) from Dunkirk after which he reminded the people that in spite of the success a retreat is not a victory. Then France collapsed and the whole world expected Britain to go pretty quickly. That was the time of the "We will fight them on the beaches...." speech.

I'm not going to tell the whole story. You know it but will love reading it again, sprinkled with Churchill's rhetoric. He was fearless. There's nothing else to be said. Though he knew the odds, he was determined and passed his determination to a whole people. You remember the "finest hour" speech where he said we will resist in the face of huge odds so that if the British Empire last for a thousand years (as Hitler expected his empire to last) all will say, "this was their finest hour."

Churchill traveled the world, uncomfortably in unheated, unpressurized Liberators to meet with his generals and allies. Roosevelt traveled to the big conferences (granted it was harder to him to travel and he sent Eleanor to rally the people at home and in the field) but that's all. Churchill traveled far and wide, often ill with pneumonia or heart problems. Stalin barely left his domain (afraid probably). Tehran was as far as he would go to meet with the allies though Churchill traveled twice to Moscow. Yalta was in Stalin's own territory. Other top level allied meetings were Churchill and Roosevelt only.

Gradually Churchill realized that he was becoming the junior partner in the alliance, though he was older than both Stalin and Roosevelt (and outlived both). As allied victory became inevitable (long before the war was won), it also became clear that the US and the USSR would eclipse Britain in the post-war world. Roosevelt particularly wanted to rid the world of colonialism and had no sympathy for the old Victorian's goal of holding on to as much of the empire as possible. In retrospect, Roosevelt seems naive, as he was naive in thinking he could work well with Uncle Joe. Interestingly, this is a tale of war from the British POV and neither Roosevelt nor Eisenhower come off as well as they do in American versions.

The war (1940-1945) takes up more than three quarters of this book which extends until Churchill's death in 1965. In 1945 Labour wins the election and Churchill leaves the Potsdam Conference, though his influence continued to be felt. You'll remember his famous speech in Fulton, Missouri (to which Truman had invited him to speak at the Commencement ceremonies of Westminster College) he warned that "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent."

I can't compare this volume easily with the others since I read them years ago, but I enjoyed it. The words may not all have been Manchester's, but he did the research and the focus is his. Thanks goodness for Paul Reid for this final chapter in the story.

[Rick · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The Last Lion” series by William Manchester is a three-volume biography on Churchill. Volumes one (1983) and two (1988) were written solely by Manchester; the third volume was finished by Paul Reid (published 2012) using the notes and outlines of Manchester who died in 2004. This review is for Volume 3 - "The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965."

Volume one covered the period from Churchill’s birth in 1874 through 1932 ... a period of 58 years. Volume two covered the next eight years, 1932 to 1940 … a period where Churchill was a "backbencher," relegated to giving speeches but not allowed to make policy; he was in Parliament, but not in power. Volume three picks up as the world enters World War II, with Churchill back as prime minister … leading England through its darkest times.

Thrust back into the leadership, Churchill did all he could to prepare and guide England for what was to come … exactly what he had warned was to come. England essentially fought alone for the first two years, as the United States remained on the sidelines until forced off the bench by the attack on Pearl Harbor. England entered the war as the strongest of all the eventual allies, and came out of it weak and never able to regain its previous heights.

The strength of the book is that it shows all of Churchill’s strengths and faults in living color. It also touches on the likes of Dwight Eisenhower, Franklin Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin … detailing some of the inner workings of the conferences they had. In the end, this part of the narrative comes across as hard on Eisenhower and Roosevelt—indecisive, for the former and all politics, for the latter; and details how all felt snookered by Stalin at the end, especially as it related to Poland.

While we all know how the story ends, the narrative of volume three is still a page turner. Manchester, who had an affinity for his subject, left all the detail for Reid to finish the work … and Reid did a masterful job. If there is any minor deficiency, it is that there is little on Churchill’s last decade. This biography was a massive undertaking by Manchester, and IMHO a massive success. Highly recommended.

[John Bohnert · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've now read and enjoyed all three volumes of Manchester's biography of Winston Churchill. I've long admired Churchill especially his time as PM during WWII.

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my God, the conclusion to the greatest biography in the history of biographies! I never thought this book would get completed after Manchester died. I cannot express how urgently I want to read this book.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

After a lifetime striving to obtain the greatest political office one can achieve, you are faced with one of the greatest military threats your nation as ever had to deal with. The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965 is the final volume William Manchester’s biographical trilogy that was finished by Paul Reid that covers the five years that define Churchill to the world.

While title of the book indicates that it will cover the last quarter-century of Churchill’s life—and it does—almost 90% covers his tenure in 10 Downing Street from his ascension to Prime Minister through V-E Day almost 5 years to the day. Reid using Manchester’s established research and interviews as well as adding his own follows the path Winston Churchill had to tread both militarily as Britain’s war leader to defend the Home Islands from invasion as well as the outlying possessions that sustained the Home Islands in food and material while getting whatever assistance he can from the United States over the course a year until the German invasion of the Soviet Union followed later by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Now with powerful allies, though now with another war on the other side of the world, Churchill’s problems were not solved but only multiplied as different strategic and post-war visions from the Soviet Union and the United States as well as their contributions to the overall war effort soon eclipsed that of the British not only in the war but in the eventual peace. The last tenth of the book dealt most with Churchill’s time as leader of the opposition to Attlee’s Labour government that came to power after the July 1945 election while also being considered the greatest statesmen in the world at the same. But once he achieved his goal of obtaining 10 Downing through the ballot box, but ill-health and that change in American and Soviet leaderships sent the rapidly freezing Cold War out of his hands diplomatically while his long-time loyal supporters looked ease him out but not in a way that would cause massive public dissatisfaction of backstabbing him. The last ten years of his life after his resignation are covered in about as many pages with a sadness of the inevitable but how he remained himself until the end.

While the first two volumes of this biographical trilogy gave showcased Churchill’s path towards his “date with destiny”, this was the volume anyone interested in Churchill was interested in. Looking from an American point-of-view at Churchill’s leadership role along with his various decisions and reactions that saw the war from British point-of-view gave a greater scope to the vast conflict, especially in the overall European theater. The personal and political relationships between Churchill to both Franklin Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin on one level to various British and American military commanders on another while also being a political leader on the home front showed the numerous plates that he had to spin, many times without success when it came to various strategic plans especially in Italy and the Balkans the latter of which would shape the early Cold War. Reid and Manchester, from an American point-of-view, took on the myth of Churchill’s opposition to D-Day that Eisenhower and other propagated especially when facts bore out that Churchill’s insistence that Montgomery review the initial plans that resulted in the Overlord plan that took place on June 6 in which Churchill wholeheartedly supported. The surprising fact that the “warmonger” Churchill attempted throughout his second premiership to organize a summit early in the hardening Cold War with the threat of atomic then nuclear war—one with only losers and no winners—beginning to loom large was a surprise and often overlooked.

Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965 portrays the Churchill of 1940 when Britain stood alone in which he is remember by history then follows the rest of his war years in detail, especially how the greatest empire in history at the beginning of the war would be the distant third major war power at the end of it. The research of both William Manchester and Paul Reid brings into focus for the reader the short-term and long-term military decisions Churchill dealt with as well as numerous political realities he had to either fight or acquiesce to throughout the war years and later upon his post-war premiership.

[Martha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I waited 32 years for this book. Mama and I read the first two installments together, enthralled, our love of Churchill deepened by the power of William Manchester’s words. But after that second volume in 1982, there was only silence. Time passed and the world learned of the strokes that felled Manchester (cruelly leaving his intellect intact but his ability to put words on the page shattered). So “The Last Lion” was suffused in my mind with the dimming of two great literary figures. It never occurred to me to seek out “Defender of the Realm”. Only months ago I learned that in 2003 Manchester approached the journalist Paul Reid to complete his work, in effect translating huge “clumps” of interviews and impressions. The book was released in 2012, and I literally burst into tears when I got my hands on it. Spending 1180 more pages with Churchill sounded too good to be true, and in a way it was.
Manchester and Reid are nothing if not thorough. We get seemingly every battle fought, its participants, its code name (Operation Anvil, Operation Market Garden, Operation Overlord), its onslaught of acronyms. By morphing from biography to military history, somehow the people – even Churchill – become mechanized. Reid excels at describing Britain as it fights Germany literally alone. Your love for Churchill, for his country, will deepen, absolutely. Your unease with America’s grudging pre-Pearl-Harbor involvement will likewise deepen. But as the pages pile up, the military minutia becomes as maddening as Churchill’s busy meddling into troop deployment was to the generals involved. And somehow, amid all this detail, the Holocaust is unseen. Truly: it is barely mentioned. Treachery to Poland receives more ink.
Reid seems to run out of book before he runs out of character: he cedes only 100 pages to Churchill’s last twenty years (years which saw Churchill return to office). Granted, an elderly man puttering about with his easel and goldfish pales in significance to a wartime commander, but still. You can almost hear a panic-stricken Reid yodeling out those last 100 pages, auctioneer-style, to cram them all in.
My vexation with this structure and the battlefield tedium notwithstanding, time with Churchill is always worthwhile. He was brave, steadfast, devoted, difficult, brilliant, tedious, an unrepentant imperialist, outrageous, outsized, irreplaceable. Even his opponent acknowledged Churchill as “the man, and the only man we have, for this hour.” It’s as impossible to imagine victory in Europe without him as it is to imagine Depression-era America without FDR. (And it’s poignant to be reading this book today. Churchill’s heartbreak was to witness the passing of his beloved Empire as America surged into its place. Now we’re seeing our own nation constrict, ceding its influence and honor.) So eat your Wheaties, readers, and tackle this book. Immerse yourself in Churchill and his “zigzag streak of lightning on the brain”. We will not see his like again, ever.

[Sherry Sharpnack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book #3 in "The Last Lion," the three-volume biography of Winston Churchill, should have been as interesting and entertaining as Books #1 and #2, especially since this volume picks up right after Dunkirk, in 1940. Churchill and England are alone in fighting the great evil that is Adolph Hitler and his brilliant generals. America is mired in isolationism, and the Soviet Union is in a non-aggression pact w/ Germamy. Instead, to my great disappointment, this volume is DRY. I assume it is because William Manchester was replaced by Paul Reid, when Mr. Manchester could not continue his great work due to health problems.

We are treated to a massively in-depth look at England standing alone for nearly one and a half years against the Nazis overrunning of Europe. Churchill was masterful in 1940-41, holding the British people together w/ his oratory; and his inability to consider defeat and a negotiated peace. THIS is the Churchill we know and love with no sense of personal danger during the Blitz of London or on his dangerous overseas travels to micromanage the conduct of the war. I honestly find the war years TOO detailed; I feel like I'm getting almost a minute-by-minute account, when what I wanted was the behind-the-scenes wrangling over war fronts and Churchill's relationship w/ his generals. Mostly what I read was the generals trying to wage the war while avoiding Churchill's interference. His conniving to involve the United States in the war does not look good, even though we can all understand his motives for doing so. It is painful to read as Churchill devolves from a brave warrior trying to convince the US to loan him materiel, to becoming a junior partner, often ignored, of Franklin Roosevelt, HIS generals, HIS war goods. Britain was bankrupt before Roosevelt convinced Congress of the need of the Lend-Lease program, and much of that materiel ended up at the bottom of the Atlantic b/c of German U-boats. Even after reading this massive tome, I find it hard to believe that the UK survived at all.

Again, I found it painful to read how Roosevelt variously ignored or placated Churchill, w/ both men knowing that America held all the cards. Poor Churchill was always at heart a warrior serving Queen Victoria, and his goal to preserve the Empire led to many clashes w/ Roosevelt, who considered imperialism and Empire anathema. I kept thinking "LET IT GO" to Churchill, as he would cook up one cockamamie scheme after another to relieve Far-East colonies such as Singapore when there simply were not the war materials to go all the way to the Far East. Roosevelt simply never understood that Churchill felt RESPONSIBLE for the people in the far-flung colonies, as a parent would a child. Roosevelt always saw the Brits as conquering invaders, as opposed to "bringers of light into the darkness." I think Roosevelt is RIGHT, of course, in his ideas about Empire, but I sympathize w/ the old warrior to whom that was unthinkable, until most of the Empire was simply unsaveable.

Even harder than reading about the war years was reading about Churchill being kicked out of Downing Street right after VE Day, even before Japan had been defeated. That felt so UNGRATEFUL to me, but he had vowed to hold an election right after the war, and he did so. The poor citizens of the UK were fed up w/ rationing and lack of coal, even though that wasn't strictly Churchill's government's fault and continued well into the 1950's. It was 1956, eleven years after VE Day, before the wartime rationing ended in Britain, well within my mother-in-law's memory. No wonder she married a Yank at 16 and moved to Nebraska w/ him!! And no wonder she died w/ twelve pounds of butter in her freezer....

Anyway, Churchill survived to become Prime Minister again, during the formation of the Korean War and the formation of NATO. Eisenhower had a long relationship w/ Churchill - or should I saw he had a long history of IGNORING Churchill? - as the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe and then as he helped form NATO. Churchill always wanted a quasi United States of Europe, but without the UK in it. He would have been in favor of Brexit, I think. Churchill had a serious stroke while in his second term as PM, but managed to hide his condition as it took him months to recover. This reminded me of Woodrow Wilson in 1919. There is no way that a world leader's condition could remain hidden for so many months today! Churchill began his long slide into ill-health and political death w/ this stroke, although he was in office for another couple of years. The last ten years of his life were filled w/ travel and pontificating to his circle of friends, who had remained loyal for all these years.

Out of the 1,066 pages of this massive book, these are the most stirring words, about VE Day:

"As was his wont, Churchill worked past midnight and well into the early hours of May 9. Hundreds of telegrams had to be answered; the box was in dire need of attention. As he worked on, London officials doused the searchlights in hopes of encouraging the crowds to disperse. In the streets, Churchill's Englishmen, victorious, made for their homes.
It was five years to the day since Hitler had ordered his armies into the Low Countries. In those black days, Churchill told Englishmen that to give in was to sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age. But, he told them, if they never gave in -- and they had not -- they would someday reach the broad sunlit uplands.
At that latitude and at that time of year dawn comes early, a faint blush on the far horizon. Night defeated, retreats. And light is born again." p. 930.

How very stirring, and almost...Churchillian. May his memory, and his words, last forever in the hearts of free men.

[Brok3n · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Celebration of Winston Churchill's Life

William Manchester and Paul Reid's The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965 is the third and final volume of what began as Manchester's multivolume biography of Winston S. Churchill, The Last Lion. Manchester began work on this, the final volume, in 1988. Between 1988 and 1998 he compiled over 2000 pages of detailed research notes and wrote the first 100 pages. His work was halted by two strokes in 1998. In 2003 Manchester asked Reid to complete it. He was just in time -- Manchester died in 2004. Over the subsequent eight years Reid completed the book for publication in 2012.

It is long. I recently read J.K. Rowling's novel The Running Grave. I thought that was a long book, but compared to Defender of the Realm it's a mere novella. Defender of the Realm clocks in at 1795 pages on kindle. The bulk is divided into eight chapters. Each chapter is really a book. The first six cover World War II, roughly one year per chapter. Thus, the bulk of Defender of the Realm is a history of WWII as seen from the point of view of Churchill and those close to him, that is, WWII as experienced by the English. These were, of course, the years in which Churchill was the hero we now know. Churchill's twenty post-war years are covered more concisely, in chapters seven and eight. These are sad -- it is difficult to avoid the feeling that he'd have been wiser to quit at the top of his game, as indeed his wife Clementine and many of his colleagues wished. "The Last Lion" is a good title -- it captures both Churchill's greatness and the sense that he may have survived past his time.

I titled this review "A Celebration of Winston Churchill's Life", and there's a reason for that. The Last Lion is not actually an even-handed biography of Churchill, although this, the final volume, comes closer to that than the first two. It first became obvious to me in Volume One, Visions of Glory, 1874-1932, when Manchester was writing about Winston Churchill's father, Randolph. Manchester reports as simple truth a story told by Lord Randolph's friend Harris about how Lord Randolph became infected with syphilis. When I read this story, I immediately thought, "This sounds like a transparent fabrication." Then at the end, Manchester added the following footnote

In his Lord Randolph Churchill (Oxford, 1981) R. F. Foster discounts Harris’s “almost completely unlikely assertion of the manner in which he [Randolph] contracted syphilis.” Foster does not say why. The account does not seem unlikely to this writer, and Harris, as Foster concedes, enjoyed a relationship with both Lord Randolph and Winston which “was both genuine and appreciably close”.

I can only say that although Harris's "account did not seem unlikely to this writer", it seemed very unlikely to this reader. (And that Harris was close to Lord Randolph is irrelevant to the plausibility of the story -- it speaks only to the question of who might have been complicit in its fabrication, if indeed it was false.) From that point it was clear to me that Manchester would, to the extent he could avoid it, speak no evil of the Churchill name.

Defender of the Realm began in that way, but the tone quickly changed. I surmise that the change in tone occurred at the point where we switched from those first 100 pages written by Manchester to those written by Reid. While Reid still attempts to put the most positive plausible spin on events, he is careful to give all relevant facts. When Churchill's behavior was indefensible (as not infrequently it was), Reid doesn't seek to justify or excuse it, although he does attempt to explain it. For the most part this seemed reasonable to me.

I was a little less charmed by the consistent attempt to puff up Churchill by denigrating Americans. A lot of this however, can be put down to Alan Brooke, Churchill's military chief of staff. Brooke, whom Reid quotes frequently, is an excellent source: an intelligent man in near daily contact with Churchill during the war, who kept a detailed diary, which he eventually published. However, if Brooke ever expressed anything other than withering disdain for the abilities of a US soldier, I must have missed it. Churchill himself did not escape Brooke's censure. At one point Reid refers to him as "the supercilious Brooke". If this story had been written by Homer, I suspect "the supercilious Brooke" would have been his epithet.

Defender of the Realm is an excellent account of the courage of Winston Churchill and the English people during WWII. It is, in my opinion, slightly marred by a pro-Churchill bias, but this was, I thought, a minor fault.

Blog review.

[Alex · Rating 1 out of 5]

[UPDATE - 16 Feb 2020] Having completed and enjoyed Manchester's first two volumes in the Last Lion series, I embarked on the third. It was co-authored by Paul Reid. After reading through the Preamble and ~20 pages into Part One, I posted a comment on Goodreads remarking on the difference in style I noticed between the third book and Manchester's first two. I had not yet left a rating. Paul saw my comment and replied. I have included his reply and the ensuing exchange below, as it completes my review and rating of the third book. His second comment is what he posted before editing it.

[Original comment - 15 Feb 2020 - unedited]
When I finished the first book, I had planned on taking some time before diving into the second. That only lasted a day or two.

When I finished the second book, I had the same plan, and here I am again, less than a week later and have somehow found myself already through the 50-page Preamble of the third and final volume of the series.

Manchester spent 10 years in research for Part III, from 1988 to 1998. He then turned his attention to writing it. He had just begun when he had a stroke. It left him unable to write any longer. The next five years had to be tortuous, unable to complete his life’s work. In 2003, he asked his good friend Paul Reid to finish the book for him.

Already, in just the opening pages, the book has a distinctly different tone from Manchester’s first two. Perhaps an illustration from C.S. Lewis will help explain.

Lewis was once sitting in a toolshed. A single ray of sunlight beamed down through a crack in the ceiling boards. Lewis gazed at the beam, watching the specks of dust dance in the sunlight. He then rose, took a couple steps forward, and stood in the light. He looked up, out through that crack, and took in the blue skies. Here, he had a revelation. There are two ways to observe something, you can look at it or you can look along it. It is one thing to be a youth standing in front of your first love, enraptured by their presence, being, as they say, in love. It is another thing to be a friend, sitting on a park bench observing the two lovers.

That is the flavor of Manchester versus Reid. Manchester looked along the beam. He somehow managed to channel Churchill himself, immersing us in the experience, giving us a first-person view of the world. Reid looks at it. He sees it well—he sees clearly and his writing (so far) is enjoyable—but it is a different experience.

Onward. Reid picks up with Churchill just being named Prime Minister, ready—eager—to lead his nation, to stand against the Dark Tyranny, to defend the Free World.

Winston Churchill was prepared now to step forward as England’s master and commander, and its drummer. But were his King and countrymen ready for him? Would Britons join him when the Hun arrived, and fight alongside him to the end? Were they prepared, each and all, to die in defense of family, home, King, and country? Churchill was. He had readied himself for this moment during every hour of every day for six decades, when he first sent his toy armies charging across the floors of his father’s London town house.

The glorious weather held. Lilacs—in English folklore the harbingers of springtime rebirth—bloomed across the land. “Lovely day,” Alexander Cadogan noted in his diary hours before Hitler gave his order to attack. “Tulips almost at their best and everything smiling, except human affairs.”


[Replies posted on 15 Feb 2020]

message 1: by Paul (edited by Paul)

Let's reconnect when you finish. In the meantime, thank you for reading the book. But, you see, in the first instance you've got the chronology incorrect. Manchester did ALL of his research for all the volumes before 1983. He wrote about 100-pages in 1989. He may have fiddled with those pages until 1998, but he did not do any more writing or research, reason: writer's block and illness. This info is in the Author's Note. Now, to your point about C. S. Lewis, and "following along the beam" and simply "seeing" the beam. That's just the type of pronouncement Bill M. liked to make, seemingly profound yet kinda meaningless upon examination. You've read 55-pages and arrived at your conclusion about Manchester looking "along" the beam versus my "seeing" the beam. But, and here's the kicker, Bill wrote about half of what you've read, and half of the next 150-pages. Can you tell me what he wrote and what I wrote? Answer, I think: no. About 1/3 of the paragraphs you've read are Bill's, 1/3 by me, and 1/3 half by Bill, half by me. So, if you'd like to engage in a hopefully fun experiment, if you can point out 10 graphs in the Prologue by Bill, 10 by me, and 10, that are half-and-half, I'll donate $1000 to a charity of your choice. Good Luck! And have fun! Again, thanks for reading the book, but my point here is, don't rush to judgements you cannot sustain through analysis. A writer's income depends on reviewers--especially in hugely public venues such as Amazon and Goodreads--doing their due diligence. All the Best.


message 2: by Alex (unedited)

I see that I may have stepped on your ego. I find your reply most ungracious and a total turnoff, and will therefore not be finishing the book.


message 3: by Paul (unedited)

Ha! No, you didn't step on my ego. Nice try at a dodge and deflection. You, a pompous ass, without knowing who wrote what (and citing some obtuse C. S. Lewis "beam" bullshit), declared Manchester was moving "along" the beam while I was simply "seeing" the beam . . . blah blah blah. Your drivel will not take food from my table, but your type of "criticism", imprecise and unsustainable by logic of citation, often does just that to hard-working writers. You floated an unsustainable premise, got called out on the facts, and retreated in a big huffy puffy fit. I tried to engage you in a conversation; you showed yourself a fool. Let's try again: Tell me what I wrote that you find lacking, and what Manchester wrote that you find so profound? You can't. end of story. Meanwhile, as Ed Murrow said, Good night and Good Luck. When you come at someone--anyone-- who has spent a lifetime searching for precision, clarity, and truth, you best come prepared. You didn't. Back to your basement, now, and tell your Mom to shut out the lights.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my review of volume II of William Manchester's magnum opus biography of Winston Churchill, The Last Lion, I said the following in anticipation of beginning the third and final volume: "Thankfully, volume III was finished after his death by an author of his choosing, but it would have been invaluable to have Manchester at the height of his powers, as he is here, to finish the story." Now after having finished the final volume, The Last Lion 3: Winston Spencer Churchill: Defender of the Realm, 1940-65, that statement still holds true, but not in diminishing Paul Reid's accomplishment in carrying off what Manchester had begun. Reid's ability to take the outlines, notes and initial drafts and not only allow Manchester's voice to dominate the text, but to add his own stamp without taking off in a different course, is singular. However, the final two chapters of the book definitely betray the absence of Manchester's deft prose. Still, it is, unequivocally, the best biography I've ever read. I can honestly say, in total, with some three thousand pages, I was captivated from start to finish. A great work about one of my heroes.

Volume III picks up in 1940 with Winston residing at No. 10, in place as Prime Minister with a coalition government behind him. Britain faced it's "final hour" as Nazi German began regular bombings of England in hopes of bring the people to their knees. The Battle of Britain, and Churchill's dominating presence and encouragement of King, Country and People would set the tone for the defiance and courage of Britain during the years of World War II. Indeed this final volume spends a majority of it's text covering the War and Churchill's place and performance in it. The War dominates the book, and it's majesty derives from Churchill's interaction with the people, his relationship with the cabinet, his family and other World Leaders. But here is also the first minor criticism and contrast between this final volume and the first two. In the first two books, Manchester allows Churchill's diaries, writings and voice to dominate the text and descriptions- in fact Manchester defers to Churchill quite a bit, which gave them an intrinsic depth into the man himself. In Volume III, Manchester and Reid rely more upon the diaries and writings of Churchill's contemporaries. To be certain, the writings and assessments of Churchill's contemporaries played a significant role in the first two volumes, but in Defender of the Realm they became a majority of the substantive observations. Therefore, in small way, the reader goes from being with Churchill along his journey, intimate and close to his character and thought processes, to now being cast more in the role as observer.

While it is expected that the War would really be the crux of the last volume, Churchill's years after the war are only examined in the last hundred pages or so. Normally a hundred pages is quite a large portion of a biography, but when the read has spent close to three thousand pages up to this point, it seems like more of a cursory treatment. That's not to say that the authors ignore Churchill's postwar role, in fact, I believe they do an excellent job of recasting him in the "Cassandra" role of foreseeing calamity where others refused to notice with the quick evolution from World War to Cold War. But perhaps this is where Reid is more on his own as the author and Manchester's notes and previous work had not extended, and Reid was reluctant to go too far afield of Manchester's intent. That is only a guess, but the reading makes it fairly clear that the post war years are fully in Reid's command. Again, it is a minor critique in the face of such a dominating accomplishment, but it is worth noting. Yes, Churchill's influence was on the wane in some respects, but the author makes the case that evolved onto the world stage. And it would seem odd that someone would advocate for even more material from a three thousand plus page work, but it is a tribute to how well written and enjoyable the whole work is overall.

But here, also is where Reid shines. When he is fully in control, he stays with Manchester, but is able to steer through the final years of Churchill's life giving it meaning. He largely refutes Churchill's private Doctor, Lord Moran, and his memoir's thesis that Churchill's final years were dark and spent largely in depression. While there is some evidence of that, in particular Churchill's final two years, Reid counters that Churchill's retirement years presented a man, physically old, but mentally sharp. Despite this needed reassessment, Churchill's final years were still somewhat difficult with his health and various family problems. As he lingered, feeling the loneliness and impact of family and friends passing away before him, and indeed the passing of the Empire he so loved, one can't help but feel some of his emptiness. Even so, his impact and legacy continued on. And though Manchester may have devoted an Epilogue on Churchill's legacy, much as he provided an extensive Prologue in Volume I, the book ends with the state funeral and a brief description of the placement of a tribute to Churchill placed in Westminster Abbey, simply stating "Remember Winston Churchill".

In the final assessment, that is the ultimate contribution of this entire work: to help us to remember Winston Churchill. Despite the two minor critiques mentioned above, I believe Reid and Manchester's third Volume stands firmly alongside the first two volumes. Overall the entire three volume work is astonishing in what it is able to accomplish, to capture a man, his times, his mind and his influence in stellar prose that doesn't fail to captivate over three volumes. There wasn't a page in the entire work where I was tempted to scan or felt impatient with the pace. The pacing was perfect and the lessons were valuable. I hope that the book will serve more people and future readers to do as the closing words instruct: "Remember Winston Churchill". There many fascinating figures in history, but few so predominant and impactful on the world stage, in the 20th century, than Winston Churchill.
4.75 Stars for Volume III, 5 Stars overall for the Box Set.

[Jack Speroni · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Perhaps you think," Stalin told [a Yugoslavian communist], "that just because we are allies of the English we have forgotten who they are, and who Churchill is. They find nothing sweeter than to trick their allies... And Churchill? Churchill is the kind who, if you don't watch him, will slip a kopeck out of your pocket. Yes, a kopeck out of your pocket. By God.... And Roosevelt? Roosevelt is not like that. He dips in his hands only for bigger coins. But Churchill?

Churchill-even for a kopeck."

[Steven Peterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the third volume in a three volume series, a biography of Winston Churchill, begun by William Manchester. When it came time for the third volume, health problems forced Manchester to seek assistance--and Paul Reid finished the work after Manchester's death. Despite that sad history, the book works well and completes the trilogy very well.

This volume covers Churchill's life from 1940 until his death in 1965. At the outset, Churchill is named Prime Minister, achieving the goal of a lifetime. The book begins with the grim reality of the start of the Second World War. Poland had been overwhelmed by the Wehrmacht. England and France finally had the gumption to take a stand against German, declaring war on Hitler's Third Reich. Churchill moved British troops to France to protect Western Europe from what Churchill referred to as "the Hun." As we know, the German Panzers, using Blitzkrieg, devastated the Allies' defense, and many British troops barely escaped at Dunkirk. Then, the story really begins, with Churchill rallying the people back home with his rhetoric, his confidence, his will.

The Battle of Britain, the loss of territory in the Pacific to the Japanese (Singapore, Burma, and so on), the loss of major warships to Japanese planes. . . . At the same time, German U-boats began destroying goods and food being shipped to Great Britain by cargo vessels. A time of great peril. Again, the volume highlights Churchill's efforts to rally his people and get the Americans to provide support.

The story in this work considers the double cross by Germany against its erstwhile ally the Soviet Union and the awkward alliance of Great Britain with the Soviet Union. The odd triangular relationships among Franklin Roosevelt, Joseph Stalin, and Churchill is well described. Including the seeds of future problems as the leaders jockeyed for position.

And the war effort itself. We read of the African campaign, with Edwin Rommel dueling English forces. What would be the plan after that? We read of Churchill's intense efforts to carry out his strategic vision as to military efforts and the increasing head butting between him and the Americans (and, later, the Soviets).

One of the hallmarks of this book is the graphic depiction of Churchill's idiosyncrasies and how hard he could be toward his aides. He was single minded and often created misery in others as a result. Over time, the book makes clear the shift in power from Great Britain to the United States, and the tensions thereby created.

The story of World War II and Churchill's role is well told. So, too, is the stunning fall from power after Germany's defeat, Churchill's years in the wilderness, and his reaccession as Prime Minister )PM). His age was a burden in his second time serving as PM, but he persevered.

The family problems and his declining years are well told.

All in all, a most estimable biography. Reid served well in completing Manchester's final volume in the Churchill series.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Americans suffer every day of their lives (individually and nationally) for their virtually complete ignorance of history. William Spencer Churchill was (my opinion) the greatest citizen of the world in the 20th century, making this book is a “must-read” for those seeking to understand the modern world. “Defender of The Realm” tells the story of Churchill’s life from his ascendancy into the Prime Minister’s job in 1940 until his death in 1965. Churchill’s finest hour was likely the year 1940 thru the first half of 1941 when England and Churchill stood alone to confront the malice and military might of the Nazi empire. His courage and leadership were magnificent and the chapter on the year 1940 is worth the price of the book. Too many Americans are convinced for no good reason that we live on the edge of some national catastrophe. Knowing and understanding the raw courage of Brittians in general and Churchill in particular in 1940 and 1941, when they stood alone against the greatest military power on the planet, would serve us well to put our situation into perspective.
“The Last Lion - Defender of the Realm” is the 3rd and final volume in William Manchester’s massive and scholarly biography of Winston Churchill. I read volume II when it was published in 1988 and the 24 years between volume II and volume III was a dreary wait for me. Manchester was my favorite American historian because his research was impeccable and his writing was clear, beautiful and often poetic. I purchased 'Defender of the Realm' enthusiastically because, while I knew it would not contain Manchester's writing, it would be the fruit of his research. I learned in the Forward that Manchester wrote the first 100 pages before he became too ill to continue and ultimately brought in Paul Reid to collaborate on the writing. Reid, of course, finished the book, and we the readers have much to be thankful for. Read’s writing is about 90% of Manchester’s, which makes it very good.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A truly fascinating look into the life of Winston Churchill. I definately recommend this book to anyone who is interested in WWII or in history. I enjoyed the insights into Churchill's life not only as the Prime Minister, but also as a member of the British aristocracy. There is never much written in history texts about Churchill and that was the only previous way I had learned about him, so this book was a great breath of fresh air. Now I'll have to read the first two installments to cover what I missed.

I received a copy of this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.

[Dominykas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mintys ne apie šią knygą (kuri buvo pati įdomiausia, išsamiausia ir ilgiausia), o apie visą trilogiją.

Tai buvo didžiausias mano literatūrinis maratonas. Kas kitiems yra visi bėgimai ir dviračiai, man tai yra TAI.
Beveik 3000 psl arba daugiau nei 100h audiobuko per tris mėnesius. Didžiausia kada nors čiupinėta didžiausio XX a. žmogaus Winstono Spencerio Leonardo Churchillio biografiją. Tyrimo gylis ir pasakojo lengvumas neturi lygių.
Tikiuosi, kad per gyvenimą pavyks pamatyti bent per pusę tiek didingą žmogų ir tikiuosi niekada nepamatyti net per pusę tiek siaubingų įvykių, pro kuriuos jam teko vesti šalį ir vakarų pasaulį.