Customer Reviews

Churchills Hour

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The third historical novel by Michael Dobbs in the Winston Churchill series following WINSTON'S WAR and NEVER SURRENDER, CHURCHILL'S HOUR delivers a pre-Christmas present to Winston in early December 1941 - the United States is sucked into the war against Germany.

Here, the time frame is Christmas Day 1940 to December 11, 1941. In that period, John Winant replaces Joseph Kennedy as U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James, Averell Harriman arrives in Britain as America's Lend-Lease administrator, London is blitzed, HMS Hood is traded for the KMS Bismarck, Churchill has his first summit with FDR, Deputy Fuehrer Rudolf Hess crash lands his plane in Scotland, Rommel debarks in North Africa, Germany assaults Russia, Japan attacks Pearl Harbor and sinks HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse, and America and Britain declare war on Japan. Finally, Hitler declares war against the former and Winston can sleep more easily. All through 1940, England has barely been able to hang on and Churchill is desperate for America to enter the conflict; Roosevelt is infuriatingly elusive on the subject.

Students of Churchill and his leadership role up to and during WWII will find CHURCHILL'S HOUR, and the entire series, an engrossing read; those who aren't will likely be bored to tears. While much of the narrative concerns factual events, the fictionalized filler is given commendable credence by the author's version of the Prime Minister, who stays consistent with his historical persona throughout, even when dealing with the messy marriages of his son Randolph and his daughter Sarah. Indeed, Dobbs takes the opportunity to introduce the reader to one of the more intriguing women of the twentieth century, Pamela Digby Churchill, Randolph's wife. History records that Pamela, after divorcing the wretched Randolph, went on to occupy the beds of several prominent and wealthy men, and eventually married Averell Harriman thirty years after having an affair with him in 1941. A courtesan in the most positive sense of the word, Pamela was eventually named U.S. Ambassador to France by President Bill Clinton (how apt!) in 1993. When she died in Paris in 1997, French President Jacques Chirac posthumously awarded her the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor.

The humor in CHURCHILL'S HOUR is provided by Winston's loyal manservant, Frank Sawyers, a real person, apparently, who disappeared from history after leaving his master's household in 1947. The "twist" in the book comes via Winston's Machiavellian connivance (?) in the Japanese sneak attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet and Germany's subsequent declaration of war against America by the clever dissemination of disinformation through an Axis spy. Did he, or didn't he? If he did, then he was only following Admiral Lord Nelson's famous order at Trafalgar, "England expects every man to do his duty", and the Empire's demise was postponed until another time.

I was attracted to this book by a review I read in one of the British Sunday newspapers and grabbed it for an airline flight. My only irritation was that I still hadn't finished it by the time we touched down! This book is great. Churchill comes across as if he is real flesh and blood, and some of the other characters are magnificent. I've always had an interest in Pearl Harbour, but mostly on the military side. I had no idea how much passion and deception went into the story. It wasn't just bombs and battleships, but bedtime sorties in Downing Street too! Huge fun.

This is the third book in the Churchill series.
The Battle of Britain has just about brought Britain to its knees and the bombing of major British cities has begun to an extent to demoralise the British people and further problems occur when Japan is set to begin attacks.

The United States are reluctant to become involved in a war in Europe and then there is the unexpected attack on Pearl Harbour which alters the course of events dramatically.

Churchill's own personal problems have worsened to such an extent that they are starting to overshadow and also put in jeopardy his professional position.

The author does a fabulous job in conveying the Focus, Determination, and raw will of Churchill, a true force of nature. The man led the world for more than a year as he opposed Hitler virtually alone, while at the same time pushing FDR to get the slow to react Americans to recognize the threat to the entire world that Hitler posed. This is a great read that leaves you wanting to read Dobbs next book on Churchill.

I now use this book as an extra credit opportunity for my college history students! It is excellently written and has a SUPRISE ENDING! I ask three key questions that are hinted at in the book...did Churchill know ahead of time about the attack on Pearl Harbor? And IF he did, did he tell FDR? And if he DID tell FDR, why didn't FDR react? Or did he?
EXCELLENT!

This book, "Churchill's Hour," is a far better read than Dobbs' "Churchill's Triumph." Why? Two reasons mainly.

First Dobbs does not seem so intent on being overly mean and nasty to every American on the face of the earth. Yes, the USA dithered and delayed our involvement in WWII until it was attacked in December 1941 - far too tardy as duly noted in historical records. The USA had good reasons, however, and Dobbs is relatively fair in his recounting of the politics and realities (and the disdain of the USA) of the first two years of the war in Europe in this novel. But, readers you must remember that "Churchill's Hour" is a novel. It is FICTION.

Second, Dobbs draws for us a true made-for-TV soap opera cast of players and scripts with the entanglements of Americans Harriman and Wigant with female members of Churchill's family. Most of what he recounts actually happened, although Dobbs delights in putting the words in the mouths of the players, something that evaded historians. In some ways, this is the Modern English Madame Bovary with Pamela Churchill taking the starring role. (Actually, this story is far more interesting than "Bovary.") Winston, himself, plays a major part in the soap opera. As a result of various romps and romances, "Churchill's Hour" is not only a fun read, but I found its portrayal of historical events relatively accurate and I was not nearly as offended as an American by Dobbs' treatment of the USA as in "Churchill's Triumph."

Of course, Dobbs takes delight in penning his version of the biggest mystery surrounding WWII that has never been solved to this day: Why did Pearl Harbor happen? Who let it happen? Who caused it to happen? And what did Roosevelt and Churchill actually know (and when did they know) about the one event that propelled America into WWII, finally. And why did Hitler declare war on the USA, immediately after Pearl Harbor? In any event, Pearl Harbor and Hitler's declaration of war against the USA were both exactly what Churchill needed: America unambiguously in the war. Churchill believed, in some rather perverted way, that the war was won by the allies on 7 December 1941. Dobbs is not a mystery writer, however. His rendition of how Churchill may have discerned the imminent attack at Pearl Harbor is simplistic and not very believable. The vague espionage role played by the French maid is also a bit over the top.

Some of the secondary players are quite fascinating and enjoyable, most notably Frank Sawyers, who was Churchill's butler and valet and all-purpose "man," who according to the Epilogue stayed with Churchill until 1947 upon which he vanished from all historical record. In fact, one is hard pressed to find any record at all of Sawyers existence via web searches. One must simply take Dobbs at his word that Sawyers actually existed. Pamela Churchill also takes a major part in the evolution of the story line.

From this novel, a lovable portrait of Churchill does not result. Quite the opposite, as he is shown warts and all, with the negative traits far outweighing the positive ones - arrogant, conceited, selfish, volcanic and alcoholic. His son, Randolph, is also pictured as an egotistical drunk. The whole Churchill family, apparently, was dysfunctional in the extreme. One can only look at the subsequent generations of Churchills to find a total absence of leaders and/or worthy personages. The gene pool after Winston diminished substantially.

The main flaw that I see in this book is Dobbs' overwhelming need to draw Churchill as a person with unlimited prognostication skills. Once again (as in the poorly titled "Churchill's Triumph:), Dobbs forces an ability onto the already bigger-than-life character of Churchill the ability to foresee events that he could not possibly have imagined, let alone caused to occur. Did Churchill figure out that the Japanese would attack Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941? Probably not. There is no historical record that supports this view. And yet, in this book, Churchill is seen at the end tortured with the dilemma of blowing the whistle or not. He chose not to, according to Dobbs' tale, and thus, the USA was dragged into WWII. Yes, the USA should have been involved in WWII, and Churchill did everything in his power to make it so. But was he prescient? Doubtful.

The Epilogue is very good. You might consider reading it before you read the novel.

Finally, if you have a copy of the 5-volume set "The Second World War" by Winston Churchill published in 1953, you can follow along in various volumes with some of the various events and dialogue of this 1941 time period in Churchill's own words and memory.

The book is in excellent condition, and I was very pleased to obtain it since it is not in our local libraries in the Charlotte, NC area.

If you are an uncritical Churchill worshipper, the book is great fun.
If stick figures, one dimensional emotions, shallow plotting, a touch of anti-Semitism, and a kind of clunky plotting of history don't excite you, then the book may not be your favorite.