The Splendid and the Vile is a must-read for anyone interested in British history, leadership, and overcoming adversity. This book provides a deeply moving and cinematic portrayal of Winston Churchill's leadership during one of Britain's most challenging periods. Larson's careful research and analysis, using once-secret intelligence reports and diaries, bring to life the shelled streets of London and Churchill's own chambers. The book provides a fresh perspective on Churchill's leadership and shows how his eloquence, strategic brilliance, and perseverance helped to bind a country and a family together. Overall, this book is highly recommended for anyone interested in history, leadership, or simply a riveting narrative of courage and resilience.

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• Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for History & Biography (2020)

On Winston Churchill's first day as prime minister, Adolf Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away. For the next twelve months, Hitler would wage a relentless bombing campaign, killing 45,000 Britons. It was up to Churchill to hold his country together and persuade President Franklin Roosevelt that Britain was a worthy ally--and willing to fight to the end.In The Splendid and the Vile, Erik Larson shows how Churchill taught the British people "the art of being fearless." It is a story of political brinkmanship, but it's also an intimate domestic drama, set against the backdrop of Churchill's prime-ministerial country home, Chequers; his wartime retreat, Ditchley, where he and his entourage go when the moon is brightest and the bombing threat is highest; and of course 10 Downing Street in London. Drawing on diaries, original archival documents, and once-secret intelligence reports--some released only recently--Larson provides a new lens on London's darkest year through the day-to-day experience of Churchill and his family: his wife, Clementine; their youngest daughter, Mary, who chafes against her parents' wartime protectiveness; their son, Randolph, and his beautiful, unhappy wife, Pamela; Pamela's illicit lover, a dashing American emissary; and the advisers in Churchill's "Secret Circle," to whom he turns in the hardest moments.

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