Never Surrender [Hardcover]

Michael Dobbs (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 3, 2003

Winston Churchill embarks on a battle of wills with Adolf Hitler in the run-up to Dunkirk. The compelling new historical novel from the acclaimed author of Winston's War. 10 May 1940. In the early hours Hitler launches his attack on France, Holland and Belgium. The Phoney War is at an end. In four weeks, Hitler will win the most devastating series of victories in the history of modern warfare that will make him master of Europe. A few hours after Hitler's attack begins, Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister of a beleaguered, confused and dispirited Britain. He is surrounded by intrigue and mistrusted by his colleagues, who within days will plot to throw him out of office. He is also about to suffer the most humiliating military setback at Dunkirk that brings Britain within hours of defeat and surrender. This is the story of those four crucial weeks in which Winston Churchill and Adolf Hitler were pitted against each other, man to man, mind to mind, in a confrontation that both came to regard as a personal battle of wills. Their clash began immediately, on 10 May, when Churchill sent a letter to the old German Kaiser, Wilhelm II. It continued as first Holland and then Belgium surrendered, and Churchill used his opponents within his own War Cabinet to confuse and outwit Hitler. And while the Wehrmacht's panzers drove remorselessly through France and towards Dunkirk, Churchill used his most secret weapon, a young and resourceful woman called Emma, to sow such confusion within the Nazi ranks that would give the British forces pinned down on the beaches of Dunkirk three vital days to sail away and to survive. Britain would fight on. By the end of those four weeks, Hitler was at the gates of Paris and master of all he surveyed. But Churchill had already broken him on the most crucial battlefield of all, the battlefield of the mind.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Veteran British novelist Dobbs (Winston's War), who served as an adviser under Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major, here follows Winston Churchill through the chaotic Dunkirk days and deeper into WWII, smartly relying on auxiliary plotlines to add detail to the larger-than-life Churchill saga. Among the secondaries, the German émigré historian Ruth Mueller is a Hitler biographer and detractor who plays Churchill's moral compass and confidante. Ironically, Ruth draws the personal parallels between Churchill and his nemesis Hitler. The CBS radio broadcasts of the blunt William L. Shirer, who assesses both men, air from wartime Berlin. Further off, Donald Chichester, a young British orderly in France, lives down his father's stinging rebuke over his unwillingness to fight with arms, while closer in, U.S. Ambassador Joseph Kennedy emerges as an opportunistic, backstabbing cad who self-destructs by the novel's end. To Dobbs' credit, Churchill's character flaws, particularly his drinking and fits of depression, are portrayed alongside his heroics, climaxed by his rousing "never surrender" speech subsequent to the Dunkirk evacuation. Dobbs' infuses dramatic tension, inventive plots, and heady pacing in the narration of a British icon's noblest hours.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Review

From the reviews for Winston's War 'A vividly realised record of the events surrounding the great Briton's remarkable rise. An intriguing tale of espionage and treason ... a work to enthral. This novel never ceases to be compelling.' Stephanie Cross, Daily Mail 'Churchill is a brooding presence ... as riveting as Francis Urquhart. Dobbs' novel is astonishingly historically accurate. He certainly knows where all the skeletons are hidden and where every body is buried. He manages to give a vivid impression of the seamier side of politics in the year that immediately preceded the outbreak of war ... compelling.' Anthony Howard, The Times

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Harper Collins (November 3, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0007107250
• ISBN-13: 978-0007107254
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,235,883 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A spaniel named Winston, September 24, 2004

By 

Joseph Haschka (Glendale, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Never Surrender (Hardcover)

Winston's War: A Novel of Conspiracy, the first novel of the Churchill series by Michael Dobbs, spans the time period from Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's return from Germany after signing the shameful Munich Agreement with Adolph Hitler, to early May 1940, when he's handed a no-confidence vote by the House of Commons and forced to resign. But, WINSTON'S WAR is less about Chamberlain than the political infighting and back stabbing that brought Winston, thought to be a loudmouthed fool by his peers in Parliament and apparently washed-up in government, back to public office after years in political limbo.

NEVER SURRENDER picks up the story on May 10, 1940, when Winston is asked by King George VI to form a new government to face the Nazi menace across the Channel, and portrays the next several weeks into early June as the British Expeditionary Force in France is forced by German panzers into a desperate position on the coast at Dunkirk, from which they, and as many French troops as possible, must be evacuated back to England via whatever boats can float.

Winston, is, of course, the hero of the series, and the fictional story, based on factual events, is portrayed from his point of view. Several major figures continue from the first to second volumes, including the King, the U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James, snake-in-the-grass Joseph Kennedy, and Winston's loyal friend and political confidant, Brendan Bracken . To provide a human face to events in France, Dobbs pens the characters of Don Chichester, a conscientious objector serving with the Royal Ambulance Corps, Claude, a downed and injured French pilot that Don patches up, and a spaniel, named "Winston" by Chichester for his constant barking, that adopts the two during their retreat to the Dunkirk beach.

I was less enamored of NEVER SURRENDER than WINSTON'S WAR, though it's still a decent read. Dobbs moves back and forth between Churchill and Chichester; perhaps he should of stayed with the former for a leaner plot (since this is, after all, a saga about Winston). Churchill, plagued with feelings of deep inadequacy as he copes with defeatist ministers, intransigent generals, and a military disaster of biblical proportions, lives in the shadow of his politically disgraced and deceased father, with whose portrait he carries on imaginary conversations. Don's relationship with his own father, a stern and uncompromising Anglican vicar, has been strained ever since his mother died giving him birth. Indeed, the two are barely on speaking terms.

Dysfunctional relationships between fathers and sons is very much a theme of this book, and I got the feeling that the author tried too hard to make the point, especially after Winston's debilitating obsession with his father's memory received such scant attention in WINSTON'S WAR. And furthermore, the whole Don/Claude thing seemed inconsequential window dressing. Indeed, the ending to this sidebar was so contrived for effect that I almost pitched the book into a corner. If there had to be a subplot at all, I would rather it had revolved around, say, Bertram Ramsay, the beleaguered Vice Admiral in his subterranean tunnels under Dover Castle charged with bringing the Tommies back from Dunkirk. Or Winston the dog.

So, keeping a stiff upper lip, it's on to the third book in the series, Churchill's Hour: A Novel of Defiance.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Read, November 25, 2007

By 

Mark K. Nichols (Roosevelt Island, New York USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Never Surrender: A Novel of Winston Churchill (Paperback)

Michael Dobbs yet again brings to life an icon of the 20th Century. We learn a great deal about the man, Churchill, both his passions as well as his demons. Dobbs' portrayal of the machinations of Kennedy/Halifax bring texture to a relatively brief but critical period following Churchill's ascendancy as PM and the heroic days of Dunkirk. The sidebar drama of the Chichesters adds additional color and brings out in clear fashion how monumental events engineered by national leaders impact the daily lives and struggles of an average family. Churchill, himself, comes across in all his complexity and imperfections as a man possessed with a determination and fundemental vision ironically more in tune with that of the average Englishman than that of the gentry class into which he was born. His ability to rally the British people over the heads of his political opponents is clearly set forth by Dobbs, who more than most understands the dangers of moral relativism taking hold of the debate in times of crisis.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Right Man for the Job, August 8, 2008

By 

Sam Sattler (Spring, Texas) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Never Surrender: A Novel of Winston Churchill (Paperback)

Winston Churchill was done no favor when he was named Prime Minister in May of1940 just hours before Adolph Hitler's invasion of Belgium, Holland and France. As the world watched in horror, Hitler's army marched through those countries with surprising ease and pushed Britain's forces to the coast at Dunkirk where they seemed to be trapped like fleeing rats. Never Surrender tells the story of what turned out to be one of the most important three weeks of the twentieth century. It was during those dark days that Churchill almost single-handedly managed to keep his government from suing for peace with Hitler even when it appeared that his country would soon have no army or air force left with which to fight.

Michael Dobbs portrays a Winston Churchill who at times seems to succeed in spite of himself. Despite his bouts of depression, his drinking habits and the fact that most of his colleagues were convinced that he was already a failure, Churchill gave his countrymen the will to defy Hitler when it seemed near impossible that their resistance could ever succeed. The Winston Churchill of Never Surrender is a man filled with self-doubt, a man who still craves the approval of his long dead father, and a man who is willing to do whatever is necessary to save his beloved country. If he has to lie to his fellow ministers and staff, he will do it. If he has to ask thousands of men to sacrifice their lives in a hopeless battle to win time for others to escape Hitler's trap, he will do that. He understands, even if only a few others do, that negotiating with Adolph Hitler is the same as surrender, and he will never surrender.

But there is more to Never Surrender than Winston Churchill. Dobbs uses side stories and characters to further detail what was happening at all levels of British society during those crucial days. There are Don Chichester, a young conscientious objector and orderly with the British army in France and his Anglican vicar father who considers him to be a coward for not taking up arms against the enemy. There is Ruth Mueller, a German refugee and Hitler biographer, who has fled to England after being sickened by what has become of her own country, and who becomes an unofficial adviser to Churchill about what makes Adolph Hitler tick. There is even Joseph Kennedy, U.S. ambassador to Britain, who watches smugly, and almost hopefully, as Churchill's options become fewer and fewer, a man willing to mislead President Roosevelt despite the consequences.

Never Surrender is a suspenseful account of what one man achieved despite obstacles that would have stopped most men in their tracks. Faced with obstinate military leaders who would not follow orders, defeatist ministers who were ready to quit the fight, and self-doubts of his own, Churchill was still able to defy Hitler and to rescue more than three hundred thousand men from the beaches of Dunkirk, men who would live to fight another day. The world was lucky that Winston Churchill came along when he did. Michael Dobbs has done a remarkable job in explaining just how lucky.