The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill
Volume III
Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965
By: William Manchester and Paul Reid
Narrated by: Richard Brown
Length: 53 hrs and 23 mins

The world was at war. The English people looked at who could lead them. And the name that came to the forefront was that of Winston Churchill. One man who could be trusted to fight the needed fight, because he already had been fighting for nearly 10 years.

When the leaders and the people of the United Kingdom turned to Winston, the found a man that could lead them in ways that few could. He was a man for the hour. It only came about through great struggle. It was this fortitude that he had formed in the forge of austerity that he was about to alloy into the English people to create a force that was stronger than he or they alone could accomplish.

With hope came reality. Upon Winston’s ascension to the premiership, he brought grave news to the people of the UK. The worst was to come. He saw hardship and death. But those were not new things to him. He had seen them before. He also gave his people a vision. That it was not about the loss it was about how they perceived the life around them. With that purpose, they forged ahead to the fray.

The energy that he used to bring bare might of the free world to upon the Axis powers was unparalleled. He traveled to Russia, USA, and beyond to garner help and forge alliances. Tirelessly finding ways to fight on the fringes, preparing for the day that he and his people would again be grappling for freedom on the European continent.

This is the Winston Churchill I grew up hearing about. His speech about never giving up. His bulldogged outlook that took the people of the UK from the brink of defeat to victory. Few people in history have made the turn about that the people of the United Kingdom did: from peace-loving to war-making.

In this time the empire that had begun to show cracks, began falling apart. The people of the constituent commonwealths did find their identity in that of the UK of 50 years but in the country of their own making. The great power that she was beginning to be eclipsed by the hesitant economic giant of that was the USA. By the end of the war, the UK and France had lost their status as preeminent world powers. No longer did Britania rule waves.

With the ending of the war, Churchill was also out of office. Although the people of the UK appreciated his leadership in the time of war, the did not appreciate or want the outlook he had on the future for them. He was a man for a time of great need, a great war.

No longer the prime mister, but as leader of the opposition, he again began to see another foe, that of the former ally, the USSR. He laid the groundwork for another war, a cold war with iron curtains. Confronting the challenges and lies of the communism of that time.

The final pages of the book do cover the last years of Churchill’s life. But not with the same verbosity and intricacy of the earlier books or pages. I’m not entirely sure why this is, but I suspect that it may be because of the change in Authorship. This does leave something to be desired but does cover the main points.

The end like much of his life, was not an easy time for Winston. His children did not follow in the footsteps he laid out for them. In many respects, he did not receive the love of his parents or his children. He lived a personal life alone. This tragedy did not stop him from becoming one of the greatest men of this age. Time will need to pass before we can know for sure. But it appears to us at this present time, that Winston Churchill is a man for the ages.