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Winston S. Churchill

My Early Life Paperback

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English
Publisher

Eland
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5.43 x 1.14 x 8.5 inches
ISBN-10

0907871623
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978-0907871620
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Language ‏ : ‎ English
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0907871623
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0907871620
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.06 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.43 x 1.14 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #425,235 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #43,575 in Biographies

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773 ratings

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Winston S. Churchill

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Winston S. Churchill (1874-1965) has been called 'the greatest Briton'. An international statesman, orator, biographer, historian, author and Nobel Prize winner, his works remain in print with the world's leading publishers.

Educated at Harrow and Sandhurst, Winston spent several years in the army before becoming a newspaper correspondent and then an MP. His cabinet positions included First Lord of the Admiralty at the outbreak of the First World War and later Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Churchill became Prime Minister in 1940 and for five years led Britain though its 'finest hour'. Defeated in the July 1945 election, he was Leader of the Opposition until re-elected Prime Minister in 1951. He was knighted in 1953, the same year he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. He stepped down as Prime Minister in 1955 and remained an MP until 1964.

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4.6 out of 5

773 global ratings

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Jen Tanaka

Great book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 31, 2023

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This is a great gift.

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DaveR

Great and engaging read (or listen on Audible or on free app from local library)

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 13, 2019

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I have a BA degree in history and I still read a lot of history books. Many history books are a slog and a bit difficult to read without a pot of coffee (which isn't good for someone with high blood pressure). I did not need any coffee for this (nor for any of the other books by Winston Churchill that I've read and/or listened to on Audible or free Library App). I do have a question/comment for my (and other) history professors. Why can't/don't students get to read stuff like this? I know it's one-sided and he sometimes stretches the truth (but not like many other political figures I won't name) but it's so much more interesting/engaging than ANY of the books that I had to read when I studied for my history degree (As an added plus, I learned more than I did from most of the texts I was required to read.). I hope some of the other books on my list (Plutarch, part of which I have read and loved, Gibbon, Durant, etc.) are as interesting and fun to read.

FYI: If you are looking on Project Gutenberg, the "Complete Works of Winston Churchill" refers to another Winston Churchill, a North American (US) author with whom Winston Spencer Churchill corresponded (and I'm pretty sure met once). The letters between the two are quite humorous (as reported in "My Early Life").

4 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

First person. Very good.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 20, 2021

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Since Trump has been equated to Churchill if he decides to run again and since he was advised to “ read up on Churchill “ for best results. I decided to read up on him myself and find it very interesting!!

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CD

Amazing man good book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 1, 2015

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The book was especially interesting at the start. Winston Churchhill gave a hilarious recounting of his early days, and his successes and failures at school. Later after joining the military and then becoming a correspondent, he seemed to be everywhere at once and in every fight the British had. There was an interesting account of his great escape, and many other close encounters in Africa. The book gives a nice overview of Churchill's early life and the lead up to his political life. You can also see the origins of his unmistakable tendency to say what he means, come what may. Interesting read.

3 people found this helpful

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Josephine May

A totally different book from his better know writing

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 2, 2015

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In this book Winston lets us into the secrets of his life as a young man, but even here we are faced with such a different world from the world we know today. In those days young men from aristocratic families had to foot their own bills if they went into the army, which they did for the prestige as well as the adventure. A totally different book from his better know writing, but nevertheless, his style remains unique to the man and we can already see something of what he will become in later life.
I couldn't recommend it more for all those who are interested in our past and those who have populated its annals.

2 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

One of the best

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 11, 2015

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I am choosy about what I read. This book is one of the best - it sparkles with authentic, humble, humorous, intriguing comment on a privileged life lived to the full. The style is superb. I find the author deeply lovable in his courage and self-deprecation, his foibles and reckless pursuit of danger. If there's one book that I commend wholeheartedly to all comers, it is this one.
Quite apart from the brilliant style of writing, the passing of the Victorian age and the looming shedding of the British empire are described from within and from the height of aristocracy, without in any way patronizing the masses.
Again, one of the best

5 people found this helpful

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L. Robinson

Fascinating and fun to read!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 6, 2020

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Incredibly well-written of course. Churchill was a master storyteller and this book will fascinate as well as amuse. I cant count how many times he had me laughing out loud! Highly recommend.

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Ruan Grobler

the courage and the insecurities and foibles of the great wartime leader in their seedling form are to be ...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 3, 2017

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The drive, the courage and the insecurities and foibles of the great wartime leader in their seedling form are to be found within these pages. it is most revealing that at times one is vexed and at other times charmed and enthralled by the Churchill in these pages. An important read for those who wish to study Churchill and review his early influences.

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L.W

A fascinating insight into a young man who would have a powerful impact on world history

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 14, 2020

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A really interesting account of his early life. The book dwells more on facts and descriptions than feelings though he is willing to give his views on things he likes and dislikes . He gives a very rapid account of his early years and then a mixed account of his schooling explaining how a child's intelligence back then was rated almost entirely on a good grasp of Latin. Churchill instead preferred English language, history and poetry. He mentions a few teachers who made a positive impact on him. His parents are rarely mentioned in the early parts of the book and you get the sense Churchill struggles to write about them. There also doesn't seem to be much awareness in him as a boy that he has been born into a family of such power and prestige compared to the working man's family of the period.
His liberal side is first expressed in his defence of the music halls and attacks on them by moral puritans. Its difficult to get a sense of his wealth, later on he talks of money being quite tight for him. Nor is there any mention of his speech impediment. He never mentions any romantic entanglements, it's hard to believe an 18 year old young man didn't get up to anything at all but it's not written about here.

I was struck on his reflections on the obsolete cavalry he trained in. Describing war back then as cruel and magnificent, now it being cruel and squalid.
Writing in 1930 you can see where he was coming from. Chemistry and mechanics seemed to have become the dominant forces. His blue and gold uniform replaced by khaki coloured uniforms, swords, banners and horses replaced by trenches, tin helmets, barbed wire, poison gas and a war of attrition.
The book gives a brief account of Cuba, war there is not quite what he had trained for, marching in a column through humid conditions in pursuit of insurgents who are able to melt away into the jungle after an ambush. Every major injury sustained is covered in this book and it seems like he had more than his share though none were actually sustained in battle. Very often the injuries occur while doing rather mundane activities rather while under fire.
Where the writing really excels is in describing the skirmishes and battles that Winston personally took part in. Its here that he developed his love of whisky, adventure, gunpowder, reading and writing. His attitude towards the hostile tribesmen seems mixed, at times he seems to respect them at other times he describes them as savages.

The writing style is clear and smooth. The book itself is printed on good quality paper with clear legible font.

3 people found this helpful

John Hopper

Excellent memoir

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 22, 2016

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This is a brilliantly written memoir by Churchill of his first 26 or so years, until the turn of the 20th century. It was published in 1930, so with the hindsight of Churchill having reached almost the highest political offices in both Liberal and Conservative governments, but still before his most famous period of wartime leadership. He writes beautifully about his childhood and his famously miserable schooldays, where he hated Latin and maths, but loved English and history. Not going to university, he says that he "would far rather have been apprenticed as a bricklayer’s mate, or run errands as a messengerboy, or helped my father to dress the front windows of a grocer’s shop".

His time in the army after attending Sandhurst took him to Cuba, India and Egypt. It is here and later in the many chapters of the book dealing with the Boer War that his attitudes are most jarring to the modern reader, though of course Churchill was naturally a man of his own time, with the generally held attitudes of his time and class: the oft mentioned view that going to war was a jolly jape that all young men should undertake and thoroughly enjoy; an unquestioning acceptance of the morally civilising mission of British imperial power - "We certainly felt as we dropped off to sleep the keenest realisation of the great work which England was doing in India and of her high mission to rule these primitive but agreeable races for their welfare and our own"; and, when speaking of the settlements of hostile tribes euphemistically that "These could all be destroyed and the tribesmen together with their women and children driven up to the higher mountains in the depth of winter, where they would certainly be very uncomfortable". His hindsight leads to him draw comparisons between these comparatively minor wars and the worldwide conflagration to strike little over a decade after the end of this book's narrative: "It was not like the Great War. Nobody expected to be killed. Here and there in every regiment or battalion, half a dozen, a score, at the worst thirty or forty, would pay the forfeit; but to the great mass of those who took part in the little wars of Britain in those vanished light-hearted days, this was only a sporting element in a splendid game". His capture and heroic escape from captivity by the Boers are thrillingly described (though much of the details of military manoeuvres left me cold). His early attempt and success in entering Parliament as a member for Oldham are also well described, and in his very early appearances in the House as a Conservative MP he was already out of step with his party in a number of respects and "I drifted towards the left", moving towards the Liberal Party.

This is a beautifully written memoir - Churchill was certainly a superb writer, in addition to his other virtues and faults.

7 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

A pleasure to read.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 8, 2016

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This book is about a lost world. Many of the opinions outlined would-and do- fill some with white hot indignation. It is a place in which women do not seem to exist, though occasionally they flit through the pages as care givers, mothers (Don`t confuse the two) and society hostesses. It is a place in which a small powerful elite runs the world, un-selfconsciously for it is simply their birthright.
The words used to describe that world sparkle, coming,as they do from one of the greatest players on the stage at that time and, furthermore, from one who thoroughly understood the art of writing.
Two things I have taken from this book: Firstly, Churchill was no saint, I would imagine that were I a nineteenth century General I would find this self confident young aristocrat`s unsolicited opinions and his seeming lack of comprehension of how the twin roles of war journalist and junior officer can conflict, to be infuriating. Secondly, and more importantly, without his self confidence, self belief, call it what you will, the second world war, when it happened, could have had a very different outcome.

4 people found this helpful

Andrew Johnston

An amusing and inspiring read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 18, 2005

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What surprised me most about this book was the humour. I expected the familiar story of our greatest leader's early life, I expected an insightful account of Britain in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, I expected a stirring tale of a young man who was a practical adventurer just as much as politician and author. I didn't expect to laugh out loud regularly for much of the story.
If you've seen the film "Young Winston", based on this book, you will be familiar with some of the events. Other programmes and books have adequately explained his war leadership and his contribution to many serious political issues. However, the films and documentaries I have seen fail to capture the mischievous spirit communicated through this book.
This a fascinating study of a bygone age, when Britain maintained a great empire, when most politicians took the title Lord, and when politics and army officership were sports for those of independent means. Interestingly despite his aristocratic bloodline Churchill's family was not particularly wealthy and some of the most poignant lessons stem from this.
Sometimes the sentiments in the book appear bloodthirsty or imperialistic, but you have to realise that at least part of the time Churchill is writing satirically, reflecting common values which you suspect he did not always share himself. When he is sincerely expressing his own serious ideals it is usually easy to detect.
These beliefs link both his skilful analysis of historical events, and Churchill's account of his own development. For example he explains the British government's failure to be magnanimous after the early victories of the Boer war as the reason that a relatively fast-moving and honourable conflict descended into "shocking evils" on both sides. The same failing is shown as a prime force in the leftward drift of Churchill's own politics.
Churchill was a great writer, but it's instructive to learn that his facility with English developed largely because he was judged early on to be too dim to cope with Latin and Greek. The classics loss was our gain, the legacy including both Churchill's great deeds and great writing.
The last chapter is slightly disappointing, with Churchill's early parliamentary career an anticlimax, and the story stops rather than ending on a major event. That apart, the pace, interest and humour are consistent throughout.
This book was written in 1930, when Churchill was already 56, but in the "wilderness years" before he regained high office and led Britain through the Second World War. It is interesting to speculate whether the book would have been very different if it were written either much earlier or later.
If you want adventure, read this book. If you want to understand a great man, read this book. If you want to do both and have a good laugh, read this book.

68 people found this helpful

Shane Morley

An extraordinary account of an extraordinary youth.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 29, 2018

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I highly recommend this book to anyone who wishes to understand the man who would go on to profoundly shape the 20th century. Churchill is honest and charismatic in his writing. His depictions of war and action are as good as I've ever read and the author's capacity to succinctly summarise, whilst simultaneously painting by flowing description the order of a battle is mesmerising.

Apart from the entrancing style and clarity with which Churchill writes, the author also reveals personal details about his childhood and education that I had not come across before from the many other materials I have read on W.S.C.

In summary, this is a first class read and I would recommend the book to anyone who has an interest in the great man. In my opinion, the sections where he describes playing polo while stationed in Southern India and his nail-biting account of his escape from a Boer prison camp would each alone justify reading the book in it's entirety.

One person found this helpful

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