Publisher edition artwork
The Last Lion: Visions of Glory
William Manchester · First published 1983
Churchill before the fame: cavalry charges, prison breaks and a spectacular capacity for failure.
Highly Recommended
Easy · Long — around 900 pages
Why Read It?
A life large enough to include humiliation, told by a biographer who enjoys his subject.
What It's About
The first fifty-eight years of Winston Churchill's life, ending as the wilderness years begin.
Why It Matters
It reintroduced Churchill to a generation and remains the most vivid narrative biography of him available.
The Review
Manchester's first volume covers 1874 to 1932 — the neglected childhood, the Sudan, the Boer War escape, the Admiralty, the Gallipoli disgrace, the wilderness. It is written with unashamed sweep, and it is the most readable Churchill in print.
The value for a modern reader is in the failures. This is a man who was written off repeatedly and who kept working, wrote for money constantly, and made appalling misjudgements along with the historic ones.
Best Read
Over a month; then the second volume immediately.
Three Things You'll Take From It
- 01
A career is long enough to survive several public catastrophes.
- 02
Prolific output is itself a form of resilience.
- 03
Being right early is generally indistinguishable from being tiresome.
Better Read or Heard?
Richard Matthews reads the trilogy consistently, which matters over that length.
If You Like This…
Churchill: Walking with Destiny — Andrew Roberts
The single-volume modern standard.
Find it on AmazonThe World Crisis — Winston S. Churchill
His own version, magnificently partial.
Find it on Amazon
The Edition to Own
Little, Brown paperbacks; the three-volume set is the natural shelf purchase.
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