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Churchill's Triumph: A Novel of Betrayal

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"Old men, worn down by war, who couldn't properly finish what they had begun. It summed up the story of Yalta." - Author Michael Dobbs, in CHURCHILL'S TRIUMPH

From February 4 - 11, 1945, Churchill, Stalin and FDR met at Yalta in the Crimea to tie up the loose ends of World War II. Each had an agenda: the American President wanted the establishment of the United Nations, Russia's entry into the war against Japan, and his personal place in history; the British Prime Minister wanted a free Poland (as, unstated, a block to Soviet westward expansion); the Communist Party Secretary General wanted territory in Eastern Europe and spoils. In the end, it was the wily, rapacious Stalin that dominated the conference. FDR, exhausted and sick and with only eight weeks to live, no longer had the mental energy to perceive and resist Uncle Joe's duplicity. And Winston, though he fought like a lion, was, much like the British Empire, no longer relevant to the larger designs of the world's two new superpowers, the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.

CHURCHILL'S TRIUMPH, presumably solidly based in the factual history of the summit, is a fictional narrative of the conference as seen through the eyes of Winston, who, apparently ignored and abandoned by his friend Roosevelt, is beside himself with frustration at his inability to alter the course of diplomacy and appeasement.

Perhaps the most engaging character of the story is that of Churchill's manservant, the loyal but cheeky Frank Sawyers, a real person who, unfortunately, exited history after leaving his master's service in 1946. (Loyal readers of Michael Dobb's will remember Sawyers from a previous book in the Churchill series, Churchill's Hour. Indeed, Google "Frank Sawyers" and there's virtually no information on the man beyond his inclusion in the author's books - a pity.)

CHURCHILL'S TRIUMPH suffers, I think, from the inclusion of a fictitious subplot involving a refugee Pole, Marian Nowak, held virtual prisoner by the Russians and pressed into service by his jailers as a plumber at Churchill's borrowed Crimean residence, the Vorontsov Palace. The uneasy relation between the British PM and Nowak, which carried through to the end of the book set in 1963, allowed Winston to pronounce what he thought his nebulous triumph at Yalta to have been. But to me, this subplot seemed contrived and, at its conclusion, overly melodramatic. Another sidebar, this taking place in the fictitious Polish village of Piorun, was sufficient to illustrate the validity of Winston's ominous forebodings regarding Soviet intent in Eastern Europe.

The Yalta story, as the basis for a novel about Churchill, is powerful enough by itself and doesn't need embellishment. Particularly revelatory of the conference were the words of Octavius from Shakespeare's "Julius Ceasar" quoted by the PM as they put their signatures to paper in the concluding signing ceremony:

"Let us do so, for we are at the stake and bayed about with many enemies. And some that smile have in their hearts, I fear, millions of mischiefs."

"Churchill's Triumph" is the final book in a four-book series of historical novels by British political insider Michael Dobbs. The four books, on Winston Churchill during the war years, are "Winston's War," on Britain's disastrous intervention in Norway in the early days of the war, "Never Surrender," set in May 1940 on Churchill's rise to power against all odds, and "Churchill's Hour," the year, 1940-41, when the United Kingdom stood alone against the Nazis. Few of us appreciate how desperately close England came to losing the war in 1940-41.

"Churchill's Triumph" is about the Yalta Conference, which brought Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin together for the last time as the final defeat of Germany was in sight. The military "facts on the ground" gave Stalin the dominant hand, and he was after control of as much of Europe as possible. FDR, two months away from death, focused his declining strength on establishing the United Nations and keeping Stalin in the continuing war against Japan. Churchill wanted to stop Stalin short of the English Channel, and tried his best to save Poland. We know how that turned out. The book's subtitle is "A Novel of Betrayal."

Dobbs writes superbly, and I found these books compulsively readable, much easier going than histories covering the same ground would be. I believe Dobbs when he says he sticks scrupulously to the well-known history of the period, but still the reader gets as close to the characters as in any well-written novel. And oddly enough,knowing the ending in advance doesn't detract at all from the suspense. I thorougly enjoyed all four books and learned a lot. Now I'm seeking out and reading everything else this author wrote.

Michael Dobbs, Winston's War (2002, 2009) and Churchill's Triumph (2005, 2008)

A principal advisor for British prime ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major, and the holder of a Ph. D. in nuclear defense studies, Michael Dobbs knows of what he writes when he takes on British politics. These are two of his series of novels following the career of Winston Churchill from his accession to the prime ministership in 1940 through the momentous meeting of Churchill, Stalin and FDR in Yalta in 1945, which settled the fate of Poland and, by inference, other eastern European countries for decades. The subtitle of the first novel is "A Novel of Conspiracy" and the conspiracies are largely the work of prime minister Neville Chamberlain who came back to England from giving away Czechoslovakia to Hitler and talked about how he had earned England "peace in our time," only to discover within the next year that he hadn't. The second book has as its subtitle "A Novel of Betrayal." The betrayal is FDR's, who was so eager to secure Stalin's approval of the United Nations that he moved away from his wartime ally Churchill and gave away Poland and large parts of China to the crass and ruthless Stalin. There are lapses of style and construction in both novels but they're almost beside the point, so compelling is the story Dobbs tells and so appealing is the larger than life figure of their protagonist.

As a collector of Winston S. Churchill memoribilia, this book (novel)was an excellent addition to my WSC library. The transaction was quick and very smooth. The book arrived prior to the estimated date and it was in the condition as stated in the item description. I would purchase from this seller again!

While unashamedly pro-Winston, and somewhat heavy handed in the final scene this book is an excellent piece of historical fiction.

I'm often leary around the genre because I feel historic fiction is nothing more than make believe set in real history. However, Dobbs successfully combines the two, creating a book that one shouldn't take as truth, but is not so blaringly inaccurate as to uneducate.

This is the fourth in a series of novels by Dobbs about Churchill from 1939 thru the Yalta conference in 1945.

The meetings at Yalta would determine the fate of millions for not only after the war but for decades to come,and is brought vividly to life by Dobbs.
Roosevelt was dying, Britain's leader aging, and both struggled to keep up with Stalin and the Russians. The result led to what Churchill would describe as an iron curtain descending over Europe. Perhaps most tragically and unfairly over Poland, as described in the novel. This is great history and a great read.

I found "Churchill's Triumph" to be an excellent example of historical fiction. I enjoyed the books insight into not only Churchill, but also Roosevelt and Stalin. The subplot throughout the book concerning Poland and the mysterious plumber, Nowak, was chilling in it's portrayal of the treatment of Poland by the Germans as well as the Russians. I highly recommend this novel.

Readers, please remember, "Churchill's Triumph" is a novel about the Yalta Conference in February 1945. It is truly FICTION. As such, it seems to be so much fun for the author to trash Americans! While consistently and correctly picturing Stalin as evil incarnate (far worse than Hitler, history reminds us), Michael Dobbs' completely insulting portrayal of Franklin Roosevelt (perhaps the third greatest US president - after Washington and Lincoln), boggles the mind and substantially ruins his otherwise worthy novel. But, after all, this is fiction, and we must not get too critical of Dobbs' motivations toward Americans.

But no matter that Dobbs takes literary delight in trashing Americans and America, the biggest problem with his novel is that for those of us already well-read on the history of World War II and about the Great Triumvirate (Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin), much of the grossly over-simplified and fore-shortened history here is sadly redundant and grossly condensed.

Further, Dobbs' attempt to put actual (off-the-record, informal, un-recorded) words in the mouths of these three world leaders fails. It's a good try, but not good enough, because of he is unable to make these bigger-than-life figures small enough to "talk" informally without banal oversimplification and triteness. Perhaps all three men were indeed offensive and boorish in their ordinary talk with associates, servants, families and colleagues, but no one knows or is alive to remember accurately. Dobbs' meager attempts at their ordinary conversations fail to enlighten beyond stereotypes. He "does" Churchill best, of course, but is at his worst with Roosevelt. As an American who was reared as a small child in a home that revered Roosevelt, I was dismayed at the petty, negative, one-sided view Dobbs arrogantly draws of FDR. FDR and Churchill saved the world, for goodness sake, regardless of their personal failings. Besides, mere weeks after the Yalta Conference, Roosevelt was dead. At Yalta, he was already virtually dead. Thus, this overblown paean to Churchill - largely at Roosevelt's expense -- offends.

Not all is lost. The best part of this book is the truly great sub-plot story line of Nowak, the Pole, and the events in the small Polish town from which he assumed a stolen identity. This town, Piorun, under constant siege and occupation by waves of German and then Russian soldiers, serves as a backdrop for the Yalta Conference focus on the governance of Post-War Europe. That sub-story redeemed this book, and each episode about the town or about Nowak was truly excellent. Poland, its history and fate, is at the center of this story.

As it turns out, this fictional Pole, a Polish-pianist-turned-fake-Russian-plumber Mr. Nowak, actually serves as Churchill's conscience. As the story draws to an end 20 years later, just before Churchill's death, Churchill confronts himself (in the person of the very angry and long-since devastated Mr. Nowak) to (angrily) justify his actions at Yalta and (fail) to assuage his own guilt for having literally given Poland to the Soviet Union. The story of Poland as depicted here in the sub-plot is heart-wrenching and reminds the reader of Poland's tragic 20th Century history and just how much the world lost with its total annihilation. The land of Chopin was literally wiped off the earth. Churchill is seen to justify his "triumph" on the basis of 21st Century hindsight, events he had no idea would happen in the future: the downfall of the USSR, the revival of independent capitalist Eastern Europe, the demise of the British Empire, the ultimate pre-eminence of the USA, and the rise of China. Churchill's "triumph" at Yalta is seen in this story as a soft re-writing of history, an attempt to give Churchill credit for the current socio-political-geographic structure and success of Europe. I'm not at all sure that Churchill's achievements at Yalta bear any resemblance to a "triumph" at all. A fiction indeed is this book on all fronts, but a rather fun one, and better if you remain skeptical about Dobb's take on history.

Some of the other minor characters, such as Mr. Churchill's fictional valet/butler Sawyers, are very interesting personalities and play important roles in the story.

Suggestion to a reader: If you have a copy of the 6-volume set "The Second World War" by Winston Churchill published in 1953, open the 6th volume (entitled "Triumph and Tragedy") to Book 2, Chapters 1, 2, 3 and 4 (pages 329 to 402 in the volume I have) and follow along (while reading Dobbs) with Churchill's own version of the build up to, the events of, and aftermath of the Yalta Conference. You'll see how Dobbs picked and chose from recorded speeches and events to create part of his story. He should have chosen more of the actual and adjusted his story accordingly. I was in Yalta once, years and years ago, and had fun with 2 friends sitting and posing for a photograph on the very bench on which the 3 leaders sat when they photographically memorialized their fake "cooperative" personas in 1945. That picture, taken of us 3 travelers in 1961, hangs on a wall in my house to this day.

The weakness of the History and the ennui of the sub-plot does not a "Triumph" make.

This book, while clearly painstakingly and thoroughly researched, was just plain terrible. Michael Dobbs would have the reader believe that FDR was a doddering idiot, Stalin interested in nothing but gamesmanship, and Churchill governed almost completely by the emotion of the moment. Mr. Dobbs needs to think more deeply about the behavior and motivations of real people. Instead, he has presented us with cardboard cutouts who, if they were as preoccupied with trivia and self-involved as he indicates, would never have reached the positions of power that they did. This book insults the intelligence of anyone who has studied history seriously.