Buy new:
$11.99$11.99
FREE delivery: Wednesday, Feb 22 on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon.
Ships from: Amazon.com Sold by: Amazon.com
Buy used: $6.40
Other Sellers on Amazon
& FREE Shipping
97% positive over last 12 months
+ $3.99 shipping
85% positive over last 12 months
Usually ships within 3 to 4 days.
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. Learn more
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
In Search of Churchill Paperback – June 19, 1995
| Martin Gilbert (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
Enhance your purchase
- Print length416 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHarperCollins
- Publication dateJune 19, 1995
- Dimensions8 x 5 x 0.94 inches
- ISBN-100006374328
- ISBN-13978-0006374329
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.
Frequently bought together

- +
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Editorial Reviews
From the Back Cover
Martin Gilbert’s biography of Churchill is probably the longest biography ever written, and in the opinion of many one of the greatest. 'In Search of Churchill' is the story of Gilbert’s thirty-year quest for his subject. He reveals the staggering extent of his historical labour and shares with the reader some of the great moments in his pursuit. It is also the story of those who helped Churchill on his. Secretaries, assistants, diarists, correspondents, soldiers, politicians, civil servants; the eminent and the humble: all of them had tales to tell, many of them published here for the first time. The portrait that emerges of Churchill is almost tangibly intimate. Here, perhaps more than in any other book about him, is the character of the man, untrammelled by formalities, as seen by those who were with him at his most unguarded moments.
“Readers daunted by the 800-odd pages of the official life should start here. They will love it.”
JOHN CAMPBELL, 'The Times.'
“A fascinating account of tireless and resourceful detective work…Gilbert’s zeal in pursuit of every scrap of evidence on Churchill’s life is an example to all biographers. The work he has done puts all students of the twentieth century, and all students of Churchill, incalculably in his debt.”
JOHN GRIGG, 'Sunday Telegraph.'
“This book, part intellectual autobiography, part coda to his monumental Churchill biography, is required reading for Churchill enthusiasts. It takes on all the pace of an adventure novel.”
ANDREW ROBERTS, 'Literary Review.'
“Any world statesman close to the end would be grateful for a Martin Gilbert. What better way to meet your maker than in the happy knowledge that a leading scholar is devoting his career to tracking down, codifying and publishing every detail of your own? Gilbert is a careful scholar with a proper respect for evidence, fact, accuracy…His primary concern is setting the record straight – and in this entertaining and enjoyable book he explains how he sets about it.”
BEN PIMLOTT, 'Guardian.'
About the Author
Martin Gilbert was born in London in 1936 and educated at Highgate School and Magdalen College, Oxford. In 1962, he became research assistant to Randolph Churchill and, after Randolph’s death, succeeded him as biographer of Sir Winston Churchill. He is the author of many works of history and lives in London and Jerusalem.
Product details
- Publisher : HarperCollins; Revised ed. edition (June 19, 1995)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 416 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0006374328
- ISBN-13 : 978-0006374329
- Item Weight : 10.6 ounces
- Dimensions : 8 x 5 x 0.94 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,856,446 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3,081 in Historical British Biographies
- #8,976 in Political Leader Biographies
- #17,817 in World War II History (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Learn more about Sir Martin at www.martingilbert.com
Subscribe to Sir Martin’s Newsletter & Book Club
http://www.martingilbert.com/sir-martins-book-club-newsletter/
Follow and share Sir Martin’s legacy:
https://twitter.com/SirMartin36
https://www.facebook.com/sirmartingilbert
Sir Martin Gilbert CBE is the official biographer of Winston Churchill and a leading historian on the Twentieth Century, who, in his 88 books has shown there is such a thing as "true history".
Apart from the seven Churchill Biographies, accompanied by seventeen Churchill documents, a lifetimes work; his other major works includes Churchill a Life,The First World War, The Second World War,The Holocaust,Israel A History, History of the Twentieth Century and his nine pioneering atlases which harness cartography to history.
Born in London in 1936 to Jewish parents, Peter and Miriam Gilbert whose own parents came as refugees from Czarist Russia, he was sent with his parents to Cornwall in 1939 when the Second World War broke out. In the spring of 1940, Martin was evacuated with thousands of children to safety in Canada and returned from Toronto after four years in 1944 as a seven year old boy with his parents and baby sister. They were later evacuated, to Wales, where they were when the war ended. He attended Highgate School for ten years from 1945 to 1955.From 1955 to 1957, Martin did his National Service and in 1957, received a Demyship to Magdalen College, Oxford, graduating in 1960 with first-class honours in modern history.
Two years were spent as a Research Scholar at St Antony's College, Oxford where Gilbert was approached by Randolph Churchill to assist his work on a biography of his father, Sir Winston Churchill. That same year, 1962, Gilbert was made a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, and he spent the next few years combining his own research projects in Oxford with being part of Randolph's research team in Suffolk, working on the first two volumes of the Churchill biography. When Randolph died in 1968, Gilbert was commissioned to take over the task, completing the remaining six main volumes of the biography.
In 1995, he was awarded a Knighthood "for services to British history and international relations and in 1999 Merton, Oxford, awarded Sir Martin Gilbert a DLitt, " for the totality of his published work."
Researching and exploring, lecturing and teaching, Sir Martin had many travels to major cities throughout the United States and Canada. His travels through Europe included lectures in Lisbon, Cracow, Skopje, Kaunas, Prague, Geneva, and Paris, among others. In each place he visited old friends, made new ones, and was constantly making notes of personal experiences or eye-witness accounts he could weave into his books.
"I returned from New York to Liverpool by ship in April 1944. Since then, having been a mini-part of history, I have never stopped travelling in search of history."
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
The book covers two areas unknown to us Churchillians: (A) Martin Gilbert's fascinating career as Churchill's official biographer, which began as a research assistant to Churchill's son Randolph, and (B) a number of different aspects of Churchill's life given the spot light here, such as Churchill's moral views on military ways, his painting hobby, his personal views of the Dardanelles, and his life as described by his secretaries and staff and the stories of how Martin Gilbert got in touch with them!
Another perk are Martin Gilbert's own stories of getting access to different archives hitherto closed, as well as finding letters referred to in the Churchill papers but where no copy exists, and also tracking down people mentioned in correspondence or people who knew Churchill.
Great read! No drawbacks!
Top reviews from other countries
However Churchillian faults and flaws are certainly cited (and make amusing reading ) but I both like and importantly trust the author as a scrupulous historian . I’m no historian but I loved this book.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 3, 2021




