The distinguished author and historian Andrew Roberts discusses his critically acclaimed biography Churchill: Walking with Destiny (Allen Lane, 2019), the relevance of Winston Churchill today, and more, with Joseph Planta.

Churchill: Walking with Destiny by Andrew Roberts (Allen Lane, 2019). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Churchill

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

Publications from the Daily Telegraph to the New York Times, and various ones on both sides of the Atlantic have hailed the recent Winston Churchill biography by Andrew Roberts as the best single-volume book on the life of the former British prime minister, journalist, soldier, and one of the iconic, towering figures of the twentieth-century. Churchill: Walking with Destiny is over a thousand pages, and one of over a thousand books on the man, yet Roberts with new material, breaths life yet again into Churchill. One of over forty new sources are the private diaries of King George VI. I ask Mr. Roberts, who joins me now, about material like that, as well as the qualities of leadership that propelled Churchill to the fore in Britain, and throughout the then Empire. Roberts also looks at the mistakes that Churchill made, and how he learned from those. We also discuss Churchill’s drinking, whether he had depression, as well as how portrayals of Churchill on film and television have ranked. Andrew Roberts was in town last week for appearances with the Churchill Society of British Columbia, one of many longstanding organisations devoted to the memory of Churchill, organisations that Andrew has regularly spoken to around the world now. Andrew Roberts is a distinguished biographer and historian whose books include Salisbury: Victorian Titan, Master and Commanders, The Storm of War, Napoleon the Great, and many more, many of which have won awards. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Historical Society. He is a Trustee of the International Churchill Society. He is also a Visiting Professor at the Department of War Studies at King’s College, London, and the Roger and Martha Mertz Visiting Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Visit www.andrew-roberts.net. This book is published by Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin Books. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Andrew Roberts; Mr. Roberts, good morning.

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