Sam Leith Sam Leith

Churchill was as mad as a badger. We should all be thankful

A review of The Literary Churchill: Author, Reader, Actor, by Jonathan Rose. The stopped-clock version of how Churchill got the fascists right is horribly convincing. But he still ends up the hero

Churchill reading in his library at Chartwell [Getty Images/Shutterstock/iStock/Alamy]
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  • The Literary Churchill: Author, Reader, Actor

    Jonathan Rose

    Yale, pp. 516

Land sakes! Another book about Winston Churchill? Really? Give us a break, the average reader may think. Actually though, as title and subtitle suggest, this isn’t just another biographical study. It’s at once odder and more conventional than that. More conventional because, in some ways, it is just another biographical study.

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