Churchill Defiant

A gripping exploration of Winston Churchill's tempestuous last four years of public life and his desperate struggle to save the world from nuclear destruction. In 1951, Winston Churchill was in his late seventies and had been out of office for six years. Whilst those closest to him tried to persuade him to retire, Churchill refused. His reason was simple; he believed that the world was at grave risk of a third world war against the Russians and he was the only man who could prevent this. This was a war that Churchill intended to win not on the battlefield but at the negotiating table. And, the decision he made to return to office is essentially a choice that we will all have to make - how to live the last years of our lives. It forces us to ask ourselves: What would we do? What would we choose? Using a range of source material, biographer Barbara Leaming argues that Churchill saw very clearly the risks that faced him when he decided to go forward in 1951. The call of duty overrode the concerns of himself and his family; the stakes were simply too high not to try and do something to avoid another world war.