I have read D'Este's book and heard him give a book talk. When it comes to the later Churchill as warlord, he goes over familiar material covered by many.
What I found particularly valuable about Warlord is his treatment of Churchill's early soldiering through 1900. He uncovers some new material from junior officer contemporaries and the result is illuminating. An overall comment: just as Roy Jenkins makes a contribution by writing from the perspective of a long-time MP and a cabinet member, a good part of D'Este's contribution is that he was a career army officer and brings the perspective of army life to his book. Joe Hern -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Walter Reid Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2009 5:33 PM To: ChurchillChat Subject: [ChurchillChat] D'Este Biography I recently wrote 'Churchill 1940 - 1945: Under Friendly Fire', published by Birlinn in November 2008. It concentrates on the obstacles that Churchill faced. He had to fight to see his strategy adopted. He had to fight against the Conservative Party, the military establishment, including Brooke, the CIGS, de Gaulle and the Free French, and of course the Americans. D'Este acknowledges Churchill's consumate skills in bringing the nation behind him, but on military issues he thinks that Churchill got it wrong pretty much all the time. His view is simplistic, and in my opinion just isn't supported by the evidence. In particular his evaluation is flawed because he fails to take account of how limited Churchill's freedom was. It was only for a brief period of one year after the Second Battle of Alamein that Churchill can truly be regarded as a 'Warlord', the title of D'Este's book. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ChurchillChat" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/ChurchillChat?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
