Churchill: A Photographic Portrait

Rating:
Summary: The best Churchill picture book
Review: The bookshelves of the world are bowed low with books about Sir Winston Churchill -- biographies, analyses, defenses, debunkings, plus collected speeches, articles, and other writings. And there's no shortage of life-in-pictures books, either. Of the later category, I have no hesitation in declaring that this one is the best. Any Churchillophile (and there are lots of us) should be sure to add this to his collection.

There are two primary reasons this title is so good. One is the vast number of photos collected between its covers. The second is the fact that the collector, and commentator, is Churchill's official biographer, Martin Gilbert, the man who arguably knows Churchill better than anyone now living (with the possible exception of his daughter, Lady Mary Soames). Not only is Gilbert's selection of photos excellent and illustrative, but his discussion of them is as well. As an accompaniment to the Official Biography, or any of the spate of other recent biographies, this book shouldn't be missed.