To commemorate the fortieth anniversary of Churchill's death, renowned historian Richard Holmes brings his unparalleled knowledge of the military together with his eye for illuminating detail to his biography of one of Britain's greatest leaders.
Although much has been written on Churchill's management of Britain through the crisis years of the Second World War, 'In The Footsteps Of Churchill' takes the reader back to the explosive colour of his early life to discover the influences that shaped the man.
Holmes examines how the qualities that made Churchill great also led him to commit catastrophic blunders. The recklessness that made him a hero when he was a young correspondent during the Boer War, for example cost thousands of Allied lives when it emerged during his planning of the Gallipoli campaign in 1915.
From the beginning, we are immersed in the colourful detail and atmosphere of Churchill's world. From his aristocratic birth to a syphilitic father and a famously attractive mother, through Churchill's struggles at school and his adventures as a foreign correspondent in Rajasthan, Churchill's extraordinary character is illuminated by Holmes's portrait of a flawed but brilliant and humane man.
