Churchill's Shadow
  • Published: 19 August 2021
  • ISBN: 9781473566378
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 640
Categories:

Churchill's Shadow

An Astonishing Life and a Dangerous Legacy

Formats & editions
EBook
19 Aug 2021
Paperback
6 May 2023
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A much needed revisionist biography of the man behind the myth and his complex legacy

In A.J.P. Taylor's words, Churchill was 'the saviour of his country' when he became prime minister in 1940. Yet he was also a deeply flawed character.

Giving due credit to Churchill's achievements but making no secret of his failures, Geoffrey Wheatcroft takes a radically different approach to other biographies. Going far beyond a reappraisal of a life and a career, he reveals the complex shadow Churchill has cast over post-war British history and contemporary politics.

Telling the story of Churchill's extraordinary life and the equally fascinating one of his legacy, Churchill's Shadow focuses on how we as a nation have been living in the grip of his self-written myth ever since his death.
  • Published: 19 August 2021
  • ISBN: 9781473566378
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 640
Categories:

About the author

Geoffrey Wheatcroft

Geoffrey Wheatcroft contributes regularly to a variety of newspapers and journals including the Guardian, the Spectator, the TLS, The New York Times and the Atlantic Monthly. He is the author of several books, including The Randlords, The Controversy of Zion, The Strange Death of Tory England, Le Tour and Yo, Blair!

Praise for Churchill's Shadow

Stimulating, erudite and above all entertaining... For any reader tired of the seemingly endless round of Churchill-worship of the last few years, Geoffrey Wheatcroft provides a lively corrective

Robert Harris

A clear-eyed, incisive and superbly balanced account of Churchill, the man and the myth... Much to think about in the twenty-first century

Robert Gildea, author of Empires of the Mind

Provocative, clear-sighted, richly textured and wonderfully readable, this is the indispensable biography of Churchill for the post-Brexit 2020s

David Kynaston

Hagiographers beware; Wheatcroft has skewered the cult of Churchill hero worship. This book reminds us that while Churchill was Britain's saviour in 1940, his views on race and empire, and his military debacles from the Dardanelles to Dieppe, make it unwise to revere him like a saint

Samir Puri, author of The Great Imperial Hangover

Even readers sick of Churchill will find much to enjoy, partly because Wheatcroft is such a fluent and entertaining writer, but also because he has so many interesting and provocative things to say

Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times

Wheatcroft takes the now widely held ... view of Churchill, which is that he was reckless and racist, a "stormy petrel" in Wheatcroft's neat phrase, [and] laments the way that misinformed "Churchillism" has taken hold

Quentin Letts, The Times

[A] fascinating book... Churchill's Shadow is a wonderful revisioning of the sacred monster which, curiously, leaves you more in sympathy with him, because it never tries to gloss over his enormous faults, while giving full play to his amazing qualities.

Ferdinand Mount, Oldie

Wheatcroft declares modestly that he hasn't written a full biography... [but this] book is still the best place to start. That's not just because Wheatcroft tells you all you need to know about Churchill's life. It's because he tells you...[what] you need to know about his afterlife

Christopher Bray, Tablet

Wheatcroft is a skilled prosecutor with a rapier pen ... [Churchill's Shadow] could be the best single-volume indictment of Churchill yet written

New York Times
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