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Jun 28, 2018EvanSchoenfeld rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
Not very readable, highly biased and doesn’t come off as terribly reliable. One must give it credit for assembling a lot of information and putting it in some sort of shape. Then again, Churchill certainly led an interesting life. There were long passages of what I considered mindless tedium interspersed with really interesting parts where amazing things happen. The Gallipoli episode was carefully written and persuasive to the effect that W. C. was not responsible for it becoming a disaster. On the other hand, the author happened to forget to mention that the Anzio landing was Churchill’s idea. In spite of “Life’s” worshipful slant, I get the impression that W. C. alternated between brilliant and baffled. But he wasn’t descended from the first Duke of Marlborough as is claimed on page 1. (The First Duke died childless.) Incredibly, this is a condensation of an eight-volume original. I reckon three people read it: one suicide, one in the madhouse and one PM of England.