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THE SPLENDID AND THE VILE

A saga of churchill, family, and defiance during the blitz.

by Erik Larson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 25, 2020

A captivating history of Churchill’s heroic year, with more than the usual emphasis on his intimates.

The bestselling author deals with one of the most satisfying good-vs.-evil battles in history, the year (May 1940 to May 1941) during which Churchill and Britain held off Hitler.

Bookshelves groan with histories of Britain’s finest hour, but Larson ( Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, 2015, etc.) employs a mildly unique strategy, combining an intense, almost day-to-day account of Churchill’s actions with those of his family, two of his officials (Frederick Lindemann, who was Churchill’s prime science adviser, and Lord Beaverbrook, minister of air production), and staff, including private secretary Jock Colville and bodyguard Walter Thompson. Since no one doubted they lived in extraordinary times and almost everyone kept journals and wrote letters, the author takes full advantage of an avalanche of material, much of which will be unfamiliar to readers. Churchill remains the central figure; his charisma, public persona, table talk, quirks, and sybaritic lifestyle retain their fascination. Authors have not ignored his indispensable wife, Clementine (Sonia Purnell’s 2015 biography is particularly illuminating), but even history buffs will welcome Larson’s attention to their four children, especially Mary, a perky adolescent and his favorite. He makes no attempt to rehabilitate Winston’s only son, Randolph, a heavy-drinking spendthrift whose long-suffering wife, Pamela, finally consoled herself with a long affair with American representative Averell Harriman, which was no secret to the family and was entirely approved. Britain’s isolation ended when Germany invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, but Larson ends on May 10. The Blitz was in full swing, with a particularly destructive raid on London, but that day also saw Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s second in command, fly to England and engage in a wacky attempt (planned since the previous autumn) to negotiate peace. Nothing came of Hess’ action, but that day may also have marked the peak of the Blitz, which soon diminished as Germany concentrated its forces against the Soviet Union.

Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2020

ISBN: 978-0-385-34871-3

Page Count: 608

Publisher: Crown

Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020

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SEEN & HEARD

by Elie Wiesel & translated by Marion Wiesel ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 16, 2006

The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...

Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.

He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.

Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006

ISBN: 0374500010

Page Count: 120

Publisher: Hill & Wang

Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006

BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | HOLOCAUST | HISTORY | GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | GENERAL HISTORY

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by Elie Wiesel ; edited by Alan Rosen

by Elie Wiesel ; illustrated by Mark Podwal

by Elie Wiesel ; translated by Marion Wiesel

Kirkus Reviews' Best Books Of 2015

Kirkus Prize winner

National Book Award Winner

Pulitzer Prize Finalist

BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME

Notes on the first 150 years in america.

by Ta-Nehisi Coates ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 8, 2015

This moving, potent testament might have been titled “Black Lives Matter.” Or: “An American Tragedy.”

The powerful story of a father’s past and a son’s future.

Atlantic senior writer Coates ( The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood , 2008) offers this eloquent memoir as a letter to his teenage son, bearing witness to his own experiences and conveying passionate hopes for his son’s life. “I am wounded,” he writes. “I am marked by old codes, which shielded me in one world and then chained me in the next.” Coates grew up in the tough neighborhood of West Baltimore, beaten into obedience by his father. “I was a capable boy, intelligent and well-liked,” he remembers, “but powerfully afraid.” His life changed dramatically at Howard University, where his father taught and from which several siblings graduated. Howard, he writes, “had always been one of the most critical gathering posts for black people.” He calls it The Mecca, and its faculty and his fellow students expanded his horizons, helping him to understand “that the black world was its own thing, more than a photo-negative of the people who believe they are white.” Coates refers repeatedly to whites’ insistence on their exclusive racial identity; he realizes now “that nothing so essentialist as race” divides people, but rather “the actual injury done by people intent on naming us, intent on believing that what they have named matters more than anything we could ever actually do.” After he married, the author’s world widened again in New York, and later in Paris, where he finally felt extricated from white America’s exploitative, consumerist dreams. He came to understand that “race” does not fully explain “the breach between the world and me,” yet race exerts a crucial force, and young blacks like his son are vulnerable and endangered by “majoritarian bandits.” Coates desperately wants his son to be able to live “apart from fear—even apart from me.”

Pub Date: July 8, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-8129-9354-7

Page Count: 176

Publisher: Spiegel & Grau

Review Posted Online: May 5, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015

BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | UNITED STATES | HISTORY | CURRENT EVENTS & SOCIAL ISSUES | ETHNICITY & RACE

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by Ta-Nehisi Coates

THE BEAUTIFUL STRUGGLE (ADAPTED FOR YOUNG ADULTS)

by Ta-Nehisi Coates ; illustrated by Jackie Aher

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Book Reviews

Churchill's 1st year as prime minister is electric in 'the splendid and the vile'.

Michael Schaub

The Splendid and the Vile

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There are countless books about World War II, but there's only one Erik Larson.

The author is known for his fascinating nonfiction accounts of subjects ranging from guns to hurricanes; his best-known work, The Devil in the White City , told the story of the 1893 World's Fair and notorious serial killer H.H. Holmes. Over his career, he has developed a reputation for being able to write about disparate subjects with intelligence, wit and beautiful prose.

Fans of Larson will be happy to hear that his latest book, The Splendid and the Vile , is no exception. It's a sprawling, gripping account of Winston Churchill's first year as prime minister of the United Kingdom, and it's nearly impossible to put down.

Larson's book starts off with a recounting of "a singular event that occurred just before dusk on May 10, 1940, one of the loveliest evenings in one of the finest springs anyone could recall." Earlier in the day, Germany had invaded Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, sending a shockwave of alarm in the U.K., which was already dealing with political unrest — Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain had resigned, and King George VI appointed Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, to replace him.

Exclusive 1st Read: Erik Larson's 'The Splendid And The Vile'

First Reads

Exclusive first read: erik larson's 'the splendid and the vile'.

He wasn't an obvious choice. Observers considered him "flamboyant, electric, and wholly unpredictable" as well as "capricious and meddlesome, inclined toward dynamic action in every direction at once." He was also dealing with several personal demons: He was deeply in debt, as was his son, Randolph, who had "a gift not just for spending money but also for losing it gamblling, at which his ineptitude was legendary."

But Churchill won over the British public in short order, in large part thanks to his now-famous speech on June 4, 1940, in which he proclaimed, "We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender." Amusingly, Larson writes, Churchill then turned to a colleague and said, under his breath, "And ... we will fight them with the butt end of broken bottles, because that's bloody well all we've got."

Churchill also realized that "only the industrial might and manpower of America would ensure the final eradication of Hitler and National Socialism," and Larson details Churchill's successful efforts to persuade President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to help the British out. He was overjoyed when Roosevelt signed the Lend-Lease Act into law, having worried the American president wouldn't be able to get it through Congress: "This bill has to pass," he told Harvard University President James Conant. "What a state it would leave all of us in if it doesn't; what a state it would leave the President in; what a failure he would appear before history if this bill is not passed."

While Larson focuses heavily on Churchill and his family, he also provides a vivid account of the Blitz, the German bombing campaign that caused the British to live in fear for several months. Larson explores the reactions to the bombings from the prime minister and the royal family, but also from ordinary Britons. "One young boy, asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, a fireman or pilot or such, answered: 'Alive,' " Larson writes, thus managing to convey the terror that everyone in the U.K. felt. (Not every anecdote is so dire. Larson also writes about Joan Wyndham, who was determined to have sex with her boyfriend during the Blitz, lest she die a virgin. Her reaction afterwards: "If that's really all there is to it, I'd rather have a good smoke or go to the pictures.")

Larson's decision to focus on a wide group of people — including civil servant Jock Colville, scientist and adviser Frederick Lindemann, and military assistant Hastings "Pug" Ismay, among others — is a wise one. While Churchill is clearly the main character, Larson's profiles of his aides and colleagues add valuable context to the prime minister's role in the war. Many books have been written about Churchill, obviously, but by expanding the scope of his book, Larson provides an even deeper understanding of the legendary politician.

And although he doesn't at all neglect Churchill's actions and policies, he also paints a vivid portrait of the politician's personality, which was intense and erratic. In one telling anecdote, Larson recounts Churchill telling his family that if the Germans made it to their home, he wanted them to kill as many of them as possible. When his daughter-in-law objected, saying she didn't know how to use a gun, Churchill responded, "You could go into the kitchen and get a carving knife." (He was not joking.)

There are many things to admire about The Splendid and the Vile , but chief among them is Larson's electric writing. The book reads like a novel, and even though everyone (hopefully) knows how the war ultimately ended, he keeps the reader turning the pages with his gripping prose. It's a more than worthy addition to the long list of books about World War II and a bravura performance by one of America's greatest storytellers.

erik larson
the splendid and the vile

Review: The Splendid and the Vile

By Erik Larson ’78JRN (Crown).

Cover of "The Splendid and the Vile" by Erik Larson

Erik Larson ’78JRN is known for looking at history through a novelistic lens — for recreating the intimate details behind pivotal moments. His 2015 bestseller Dead Wake detailed “the myriad forces, large and achingly small” that resulted in the sinking of the Lusitania . The Devil in the White City recounted the true tale of a serial killer at the 1893 World’s Fair.

In his latest book, The Splendid and the Vile , Larson turns his attention to Winston Churchill ’46HON, examining his daily life during his first year as prime minister, when Hitler was leading a devastating blitzkrieg against the United Kingdom.

Inviting the reader into top-secret meetings within the cabinet war rooms, Larson shows us how the British Bulldog deftly emboldened a small nation to embrace its “finest hour,” while simultaneously betraying enough vulnerability to forge a crucial alliance with Franklin D. Roosevelt. We see the statesman climbing onto the roof of 10 Downing Street to watch the bombs fall and understand the Führer’s frustration with the symbolic and actual power of Churchill’s stubborn resistance.

This is the Churchill most familiar to us: a master orator, bellicose, belligerent, and bullying. A man with a tight grip on his cigar and his sense of destiny. But Larson’s whole oeuvre is built on subverting the familiar, and though Churchill’s life has already been dutifully recorded in multiple biographies and autobiographies, Larson can still surprise us with his tender insights.

He details Churchill’s marriage, capturing the quotidian squabbles with his wife, Clementine. One day “Churchill was unusually crabby,” writes Larson. “The proximate cause had nothing to do with the war or Roosevelt but, rather, with his discovery that Clementine had used his treasured honey, sent to him from Queensland, Australia, for the frivolous objective of sweetening rhubarb.”

We witness Churchill’s delight in his youngest daughter, Mary; his disappointment with his son, Randolph, an inveterate gambler; his passion for entertaining; and his sense of playfulness. We also understand that Churchill, for all his bluster, was an empathetic soul who cried easily and was fully cognizant of the burden of his position. Larson writes of the time Churchill visited the city of Bristol after a bombing: “Churchill waved at the crowd from the windows, and kept waving until the train was out of sight. Then, reaching for a newspaper, he sat back and raised the paper to mask his tears. ‘They have such confidence,’ he said. ‘It is a grave responsibility.’”

Relying on sources that include the diaries of Churchill’s personal secretary and those of his daughter Mary, along with a trove of letters and newly declassified government documents, Larson invites us to take another look at the statesman we thought we knew. He remains, as always, unerringly faithful to history, and still he manages to puncture the hagiography to create a fresh portrait of this courageous and complicated leader.