Churchill in WW1 - book recommendations requested please

[WilliamRev]

I am keen for recommendations of books about all aspects of Winston Churchill and the Great War.

[i am aware of the previous thread on the forum here, and I have a download of "With Winston Churchill at the Front" by Captain X].

I am particularly after analysis of his role in the war, rather than biographical or autobiographical detail. Has anyone read Richard Freeman's "Unsinkable - Churchill and the First World War"? It has four, brief, "friends-and-family"-style 5-star reviews on Amazon, but nothing that actually sheds any light on whether this book is well-researched, scholarly and genuinely worthwhile.

Is Roy Jenkin's biography of Churchill good on WW1, or should I go for one of the other biographies?

All views welcome!

William

[Moonraker]

Of little real use to you, but he makes an appearance post-Gallipoli in

this novel

set in the trenches in the Great War. Somehow the Germans have sussed that he's on active service in the trenches and task a sniper to kill him.

The novel also refers to him arriving in France to take up his command and giving his infantrymen orders in the style of the Boer War - and/or in the style of a cavalryman. Which confuses them. Dr Watson impresses him and there's an allusion to a matter in which Sherlock Holmes had helped him.

(I can't remember the exact details,and the book has gone back to the library.)

Moonraker

[17107BM]

As a book on the man, CHURCHILL. By Roy Jenkins is a must read.

ISBN 0-330-48805-8

G.K.

[David Ridgus]

I know it's not an original suggestion but I think the best two single volume biographys remain those by Roy Jenkins and Sir Martin Gilbert. Both inch towards hagiography but Gilbert in particular is too good an historian to overlook his subject's flaws

David

[David Ridgus]

William

I know it's a different media but the recent BBC 4 documentary was a good exploration of his time in the Great War. You may well have seen it, but if not, it's on You Tube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2psh41LBlQ

David

[paulgranger]

Possibly not what you seek, but 'Warlord' by Carlo D'Este is a military biography of Churchill, and covers his Great War experiences in and out Cabinet, and in and out of the front line.

a

[keithmroberts]

I looked at the new title - since giving up his day job the author has apparently written 60 books. The source material referred to seems to be overwhelmingly family related, although a publisher's blurb can be misleading.

I don't know of directly Churchill related books beyond those mentioned above, but maybe for example for 1915, Gallipoli by one P M Hart, and then look at the references to test out his views, which I generally trust, but its always better to go back to some source material. The official history Naval Operations by Corbett vols 2 and 3 cover the Gallipoli campaign and the beginning of that in Salonika, but they were written very soon after the war, and I was deterred by the style which just seemed a bit too trusting of everything. They can however be downloaded free from the Internet Archive.

I can't remember how much is covered in the 2 volume work by Hankey on the war cabinet, as I no longer have my copy, but it might be worth a look, as would anything modern on Jackie Fisher.

As for the munitions - there is a lot of material relating to Lloyd George as minister for munitions, but I can't begin to suggest reading, as the whole gearing up of the war machine is very hazy, and on my next horizon.

Good luck - maybe someone with more precise suggestions will be along

Keith

[simonharley]

Judging by his other works Freeman won't be particularly thorough or accurate, and, whilst the blurb mentions private correspondence, I doubt it'll be a wider selection than anyone else has drawn on before. Starting with Martin Gilbert's two volumes of biography covering the First World War would be a good place to start, along with the accompanying Companion volumes of letters and papers.

If you have access to a University Library, then you may have access to his voluminous personal papers, which have been digitised.

Simon

[WilliamRev]

Many thanks to everyone who responded to my request - every post mentioned something of interest: David - I will watch the documentary on Youtube: many thanks for the link.

I have found that (using the Forum money-raising link of course ) I could buy a second-hand copy of Roy Jenkins biography for less than £3 including postage, so I have purchased a copy,

Feel free to keep contributing to this thread people.....

William.

[Guest RichardFreeman]

Well, I've read it many times since I'm the author! I can assure you that the book is solidly researched. I've read every relevant bit of the War Council, Dardanelles Committee and War Cabinet minutes, and consulted all the relevant diaries and letters (eg Hobhouse & Asquith) and read all the relevant WSC letters.

If you check reviews for my book 'The Great Edwardian Naval Feud' you find reviewers who say ' the work is an absolute triumph of research' ... 'extremely well researched (and referenced)'. And if you look at reviews of my 'Admiral Insubordinate' reviewers comments include 'Freeman has had to trawl the archives and the literature forensically to demonstrate and explode the half-truths, distortions and downright lies in Beresford's own account' ... 'This is a much needed and well-researched, well written biography' ... 'ntensively professionally researched'. So, whatever faults my book might have, a lack of research is not one!

Another point that I would make is that there is no good book on WSC & WW1 (except Gilbert's masssive biography). I wrote my book because no on else seemed to have covered the topic.

My web site: www.rdfreeman.net

My Amazon page: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Richard-Freeman/e/B001HPDCWU/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

I hope this is usful

Richard Freeman

[WilliamRev]

Richard

Many thanks for your post; as you say there is no other book dealing with just WSC and WW1, and given your reassurances about your research going back to plenty of original sources, I have just ordered a copy (using the Forum Amazon link of course ), and I will post a review on the forum in due course.

William

[Guest RichardFreeman]

William

I sincerely hope you won't be disappointed.

Good reading!

Richard

[phil andrade]

Didn't Asquith say something like :

" Winston is writing a book about himself, and calling it THE WORLD CRISIS " ?

Not answering the question posed in the OP, I know, but indicative of how contemporaries saw things. Perhaps depictions written by fellow politicians and soldiers in and immediately after the war would be most rewarding.

Phil (PJA)

[simonharley]

Mr. Freeman, with all due respect, for whatever reason you ignored the Tweedmouth Papers at the National Museum of the Royal Navy when you wrote Admiral Insubordinate. Suffice it to say that there is much of great interest in the voluminous correspondence between Beresford and his First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord Tweedmouth, as well as many of the latter's draft letters to him. Many of Fisher's anti-Beresford missives to Tweedmouth are included as well, not all of which were reproduced by Arthur Marder. I won't deny that your book is a welcome addition to the historiography on Beresford, but it's certainly not as good as your reviewers make it out to be. I cite the Tweedmouth Papers as just one example of sources that could have been examined in order to provide a comprehensive, fair, and above all accurate portrait of Beresford.

Simon