Winston S. Churchill: Youth, 1874–1900

Book excerpt: The first volume of this authoritative biography chronicles the prime minister’s youth from birth to early adulthood: “An intimate, eloquent testimonial” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). Winston S. Churchill’s son, Randolph, delivers a vivid, personal portrait of his father in this first part of an eight-volume biography that is widely considered the “most scholarly study of Churchill in war and peace ever written” (The New York Times). Told through a rich treasure trove of the Churchill’s personal letters, this volume covers his life from early childhood to his return to England from an American lecture tour, on the day of Queen Victoria’s funeral in 1900, in order to embark on his political career. In the opening pages, the account of his birth in 1874 is presented through letters of his family. The subject comes on the scene with his own words in a letter to his mother, written when he was seven. His later letters, as a child, as a schoolboy at Harrow, as a cadet at Sandhurst, and as a subaltern in India, show the development of his mind and character, his ambition and awakening interests, which were to merge into a unique genius destined for world leadership. An astounding narrative of a formidable man coming into his own and the times in which he lived, this portrait is a “milestone, a monument, a magisterial achievement . . . rightly regarded as the most comprehensive life ever written of any age.” (Andrew Roberts, historian and author of The Storm of War).