The final volume of the multi-volume official biography spans Churchill’s life from the defeat of
Germany in 1945 to his death nearly twenty years later. It covers Churchill’s meetings with Truman
and Stalin at the Potsdam Conference, his “Caretaker” Government in the summer of 1945, his six
years as Leader of the Opposition, his second premiership, from October 1951 to April 1955, and
the final decade from his resignation until his death in 1965.
July 1957: “That same week Churchill spoke in his constituency. 'I am so happy,' he said, 'to see
that our relations with our American partner are being restored to their normal warm temperature.
Make no mistake. It is in the closest association with our friends in the Commonwealth, America,
and NATO that our hopes for peace and happiness lie. Neither we nor they can afford
estrangement.' To rely solely on the United Nations, he added, 'would be disastrous for the future'.”
“Churchill was indeed a noble spirit, sustained in his long life by a faith in the capacity of man to
live in peace, to seek prosperity, and to ward off threats and dangers by his own exertions. His love
of country, his sense of fair play, his hopes for the human race, were matched by formidable powers
of work and thought, vision and foresight. His path had often been dogged by controversy,
disappointment and abuse, but these had never deflected him from his sense of duty and his faith in
the British people.”
“Mr Gilbert's majestic conclusion to the vast life of Winston Churchill needs to be read, at least in
part, by everyone who cares about politics, or England, or society, or the defence of freedom.” Economist
“There will never be a biography like this again; as unique in scale as its subject himself.” Listener
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