Play Book Tag discussion

The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson
4 stars

Winston Churchill is an iconic figure. He brings to mind images of stalwart British citizens in the 1940s, a linchpin in the allied forces during WWII, and cigars. But, shamefully, what I know about him is limited to what I have learned from The Crown and The Darkest Hour. Imagine my surprise when the first thing I learned was that his election to Prime Minister coincided with Hilter’s rise to power! Who knew?

Erik Larson chronicles Churchill’s first year as PM under King George. And, Churchill had a big to do list! He needed to expand and mobilize English forces to hold off invasion by Germany, convince President Roosevelt to abandon the US policy of isolationism, and bolster British morale during the prolonged Blitz, just to name a few items.

He coordinated it all from Downing Street and Chequers, surrounded by a small circle of intimate friends and colleagues: Hastings “Pug” Ismay, John Colville, Frederick “The Prof” Lindemann, Averell Harriman, Lord Beaverbrook. Through the eyes of these men, we see the war unfold, with a strong focus on aerial battles between the Luftwaffe and the RAF.

But, what made this book especially interesting was how it wove in stories about Churchill’s family. His wife Clementine (who I MUST read more about!), his good-for-nothing son Randolph, his daughter Mary, and Randolph’s wife Pam. Through their eyes, we learn more of Churchill the family man and are exposed to what life was like in London. (At least life for the privileged.) Without this angle in the book, I think I would have drowned in the never-ending description of aerial battles.

The book was good and I definitely learned a lot, but it also was super slow in places. Like the aforementioned descriptions of aerial battles. I listened to it and the narrator was excellent, but the large cast of characters was hard to follow for a large chunk of the book.

All in all, well worth my time even if it isn’t my favorite history book I have ever read.

Glad you enjoyed it Nicole! I am quite the WWII reader, but this book, as you said, really opened up about The Churchill Family and I especially enjoyed that. I too want to find more on Clementine.

The one (actually 2) pictures I could not "un-see" were Churchill walking around in a kimono or naked-LoL

Right?!? He would have work meetings while he soaked in the bath! That is next level confidence. Lol

Also, I will never forget that he wore pink silk underwear 😳

I really loved the insight of this book. It made a profound impact on me as I read it in the first weeks of the quarantine and could not help but compare and contrast.

Booknblues wrote: "I really loved the insight of this book. It made a profound impact on me as I read it in the first weeks of the quarantine and could not help but compare and contrast."

I get that BnB-I read in mid-quarantine and I thought a lot about the British and what stamina and guts so many of them had during the air raids. I have not read a lot about the blitz and I have that on my list of musts after reading this.