There was even deliberate strategy to the shaping of speeches. The principal focus of The Splendid and the Vile is Churchill’s first — and most consequential — year as prime minister. Your footnotes contain fascinating stories and insights that weren’t included in the main text. So that’s first. How? Like a daredevil, he flies over to France on a mission to try to help the French fight off the Nazi threat. Familiarity information: SPLENDID used as an adjective is … . Find BookPage, About BookPage Of course, his idea of fun also happened to include watching air raids from the nearest rooftop. Language. Churchill’s family, particularly wife Clementine, youngest daughter Mary and son Randolph, play important roles in the “saga,” as do Randolph’s wife, Pamela, minister of aircraft production Lord Beaverbrook, private secretary John Colville, American emissaries Harry Hopkins and W. Averell Harriman and German leaders Rudolf Hess, Hermann Göring and Joseph Goebbels. • . History At the moment, no. They’re part history, part thriller, part romance, part sociological study and part psychological portrait. What makes so many writers want to write about him, and so many readers want to read about him? Notre Dame, IN 46556 USA I should point out, however, that the research never does end. 9780385348713 • In his diary he describes a particularly dramatic night raid, which he watched through a bedroom window. Always more showboat than shrinking violet, the prime minister demurred. We’re joined today on Nashville Public Television’s A WORD ON WORDS by the indomitable Erik Larson to discuss his latest book, The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz. One of the strongest and most sustained themes in The Splendid and the Vile is Churchill’s tenacious pursuit of American assistance and involvement in the war. The Splendid and the Vile takes listeners out of today’s political dysfunction and back to a time of true leadership, when, in the face of unrelenting horror, Churchill’s eloquence, courage, and perseverance bound a country, and a family, together. There’s no particular common thread, other than story. / The penultimate chapter concludes with this short, poignant sentence: “Of the dead, 5,626 were children.”. I read the free Kindle portion of Erik Larson’s The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz, Larson is the author of The Devil in the White City, Thunderstruck, Dead Wake, and Isaac’s Storm, all of which I’ve read and mostly enjoyed (although I thought Dead Wake dragged early and often). I keep reading and tweaking until the final page-proofs are finished and the book is ready to be printed. During the one year chronicled in the book, 44,652 British civilians were killed and 52,370 more people suffered injuries. The Splendid and the Vile is Erik Larson’s newest non-fiction history release. Read our full comment policy. Larson dramatizes Churchill’s indisputable bravery with example after example of the titanium spine in his somewhat rotund physique. ndmag@nd.edu, What I’m Reading: The Summer Book, Tove Jansson. … Your purchase helps support NPR programming. … “The Splendid and the Vile” tells of a resonant time when a ship-of-state flounders through chartless seas with a feckless harlequin on the bridge while citizen-passengers argue and anguish. 546 pages. It’s these little corners of history that most appeal to me . The Splendid and the Vile takes readers out of today’s political dysfunction and back to a time of true leadership, when, in the face of unrelenting horror, Churchill’s eloquence, courage, and perseverance bound a country, and a family, together. The subjects you’ve tackled over the course of your career are quite broad and varied. 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