Churchill And The King

For fans of The King's Speech, the intriguing bond between monarch and prime minister and its crucial role during World War II The political and personal relationship between King George VI and Winston Churchill during World War II is one that has been largely overlooked throughout history, yet the trust and loyalty these men shared helped Britain navigate its perhaps most trying time. Despite their vast differences, the two men met weekly and found that their divergent virtues made them a powerful duo. The king’s shy nature was offset by Churchill’s willingness to cast himself as the nation’s savior. Meanwhile, Churchill’s complicated political past was given credibility by the king’s embrace and counsel. Together as foils, confidants, conspirators, and comrades, the duo guided Britain through war while reinspiring hope in the monarchy, Parliament, and the nation itself. Books about these men as individuals could fill a library, but Kenneth Weisbrode’s study of the unique bond between them is the first of its kind.

“Wonderfully readable. . . . This is popular history at its best.” —The Daily Beast King George VI and Winston Churchill were not destined to be partners, let alone allies. Yet together—as foils, confidants, conspirators, and comrades—the unlikely duo guided Britain through war while inspiring renewed hope in the monarchy, Parliament, and the nation itself. In Churchill and the King, Kenneth Weisbrode explores the delicate fashioning of this important, though largely overlooked, relationship. The king and Churchill met nearly every week in private over lunch during the war. As they worked through the many problems facing their nation and empire, they came to realize that they had more in common than anyone could have guessed. Despite their differences, the trust and loyalty they eventually shared helped Britain navigate the most trying time in its history.

Born just two weeks apart in 1874, Winston Churchill and William Lyon Mackenzie King took different paths to achieve their objective of a parliamentary career, Churchill through military exploits and King via academic excellence. When he became prime minister, King realized that Canada had to progress from a subservient position to an independent one. Thus, when the Second World War broke out, Canada's parliament made its own decision to be a participant. King had been highly critical of Churchill's vehement anti-Nazi stance in the 1930s. However, when Churchill became prime minister, King and Canada gave him whole-hearted support. King changed his opinion of Churchill, and this developed into almost hero worship as the war progressed. Not just a chronicle of the relationship between these two men during the 50 years they knew each other, this book also examines their influence on the progress of their countries during that period.

Illustrated with photographs from the private family album, this book follows in the footsteps of some of Sir Winston Churchill's famous trips to the four corners of the world, by his granddaughter Celia Sandys. She visits South Africa, Morocco, France, the USA - amongst others - and recounts how Sir Winston's trips not only changed the course of world history, but helped to shape the man who has come to be known as 'our Greatest Briton'.

An analytical investigation into Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s decision-making process during every stage of World War II. When Winston Churchill accepted the position of Prime Minister in May 1940, he insisted in also becoming Minister of Defence. This, though, meant that he alone would be responsible for the success or failure of Britain’s war effort. It also meant that he would be faced with many monumental challenges and utterly crucial decisions upon which the fate of Britain and the free world rested. With the limited resources available to the UK, Churchill had to pinpoint where his country’s priorities lay. He had to respond to the collapse of France, decide if Britain should adopt a defensive or offensive strategy, choose if Egypt and the war in North Africa should take precedence over Singapore and the UK’s empire in the East, determine how much support to give the Soviet Union, and how much power to give the United States in controlling the direction of the war. In this insightful investigation into Churchill’s conduct during the Second World War, Allen Packwood, BA, MPhil (Cantab), FRHistS, the Director of the Churchill Archives Centre, enables the reader to share the agonies and uncertainties faced by Churchill at each crucial stage of the war. How Churchill responded to each challenge is analyzed in great detail and the conclusions Packwood draws are as uncompromising as those made by Britain’s wartime leader as he negotiated his country through its darkest days.

"In this incisive biography, Paul Addison examines both the life of the most iconic figure in twentieth-century British history, and the battle over his reputation, which continues to this day."--Jacket.

The last king of America, George III, has been ridiculed as a complete disaster who frittered away the colonies and went mad in his old age. The truth is much more nuanced and fascinating--and will completely change the way readers and historians view his reign and legacy. Most Americans dismiss George III as a buffoon--a heartless and terrible monarch with few, if any, redeeming qualities. The best-known modern interpretation of him is Jonathan Groff's preening, spitting, and pompous take in Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda's Broadway masterpiece. But this deeply unflattering characterization is rooted in the prejudiced and brilliantly persuasive opinions of eighteenth-century revolutionaries like Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson, who needed to make the king appear evil in order to achieve their own political aims. After combing through hundreds of thousands of pages of never-before-published correspondence, award-winning historian Andrew Roberts has uncovered the truth: George III was in fact a wise, humane, and even enlightened monarch who was beset by talented enemies, debilitating mental illness, incompetent ministers, and disastrous luck. In The Last King of America, Roberts paints a deft and nuanced portrait of the much-maligned monarch and outlines his accomplishments, which have been almost universally forgotten. Two hundred and forty-five years after the end of George III's American rule, it is time for Americans to look back on their last king with greater understanding: to see him as he was and to come to terms with the last time they were ruled by a monarch.

“McCarten's pulse-pounding narrative transports the reader to those springtime weeks in 1940 when the fate of the world rested on the shoulders of Winston Churchill. A true story thrillingly told. Thoroughly researched and compulsively readable.”—Michael F. Bishop, Executive Director of the International Churchill Society From the acclaimed novelist and screenwriter of The Theory of Everything comes a revelatory look at the period immediately following Winston Churchill’s ascendancy to Prime Minister “He was speaking to the nation, the world, and indeed to history....” May, 1940. Britain is at war. The horrors of blitzkrieg have seen one western European democracy after another fall in rapid succession to Nazi boot and shell. Invasion seems mere hours away. Just days after becoming Prime Minister, Winston Churchill must deal with this horror—as well as a skeptical King, a party plotting against him, and an unprepared public. Pen in hand and typist-secretary at the ready, how could he change the mood and shore up the will of a nervous people? In this gripping day-by-day, often hour-by-hour account of how an often uncertain Churchill turned Britain around, the celebrated Bafta-winning writer Anthony McCarten exposes sides of the great man never seen before. He reveals how he practiced and re-wrote his key speeches, from ‘Blood, toil, tears and sweat’ to ‘We shall fight on the beaches’; his consideration of a peace treaty with Nazi Germany, and his underappreciated role in the Dunkirk evacuation; and, above all, how 25 days helped make one man an icon. Using new archive material, McCarten reveals the crucial behind-the-scenes moments that changed the course of history. It’s a scarier—and more human—story than has ever been told.