Tag: history

Book Review: Darkest Hour by Anthony McCarten

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Darkest HourAbout the Book

May, 1940. Britain is at war. The horrors of blitzkrieg have seen one western European democracy after another fall in rapid succession to Nazi boot and shell. Invasion seems mere hours away. Just days after becoming Prime Minister, Winston Churchill must deal with this horror—as well as a sceptical King, a party plotting against him, and an unprepared public. Pen in hand and typist-secretary at the ready, how could he change the mood and shore up the will of a nervous people?

In this gripping day-by-day, often hour-by-hour account of how an often uncertain Churchill turned Britain around, the celebrated Bafta-winning writer Anthony McCarten exposes sides of the great man never seen before. He reveals how he practiced and re-wrote his key speeches, from ‘Blood, toil, tears and sweat’ to ‘We shall fight on the beaches’; his consideration of a peace treaty with Nazi Germany, and his underappreciated role in the Dunkirk evacuation; and, above all, how 25 days helped make one man an icon.

Using new archive material, McCarten reveals the crucial behind-the-scenes moments that changed the course of history. It’s a scarier—and more human—story than has ever been told.

Format: Paperback (336 pp.)         Publisher: Viking
Published: 28th September 2017   Genre: History, Non-Fiction

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk ǀ Amazon.com ǀ Hive.co.uk (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find Darkest Hour on Goodreads

My Review

Subtitled How Churchill Brought England Back from the Brink, the book provides a fascinating insight into one of the most pivotal periods of the Second World War, namely the few weeks in May 1940 when the British Government faced the reality of German advances into Belgium and the Netherlands, the prospect of the capitulation of France, the possible entry into the war of Italy as an ally of Germany and the loss of the British Expeditionary Force pinned down in Dunkirk.

The author provides the reader with a potted history of Churchill’s childhood, school days, military service, career in journalism, marriage to Clementine Hozier and his entry to Parliament. For those interested in learning more about Churchill’s early life and his troubled relationship with his father, Randolph, I can recommend searching out the film Young Winston starring Simon Ward.   The author also provides biographical information about Winston Churchill’s main opponent in the War Cabinet, Lord Halifax.

The key new ground explored in the book is the author’s contention that Winston Churchill, at the urging of Lord Halifax and Neville Chamberlain, did at least consider the terms on which negotiations with Germany for peace might take place. It’s clear he had significant reservations about such a course of action, both for strategic reasons and also because it flew in the face of everything he believed in. Churchill had recognised as early as 1933 the threat that a resurgent Germany might pose and had urged rearmament. At the time, this view was against the sway of public opinion and in Government circles there was greater fear about the spread of Communism than the threat from Hitler. Churchill was proved right in his warnings when on 9th May 1940 the Germans invaded Belgium and The Netherlands.  No wonder then that the idea of peace negotiations never progressed beyond discussion.

Thank goodness that key figures of the time chose to record their thoughts in diaries and journals giving the author access to fascinating insights into the shifting opinions and power struggles within the War Cabinet and wider Government. The reader gets an almost ‘fly on the wall’ view of the meetings, the discussions, the arguments, the motives and the political manoeuvring of the various individuals involved.

The author spends quite a bit of time examining the impact of Churchill’s oratory, dissecting key speeches and the phrases in them that have now become the stuff of legend – ‘I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat’, ‘victory at all costs’, ‘we shall fight on the beaches’. He provides fascinating information about the literary inspirations for some of these speeches and Churchill’s meticulous preparation for them.

McCarten also argues that the idea to co-opt the so-called ‘little ships’ to aid the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk (Operation Dynamo) was the brainwave of Churchill himself, an idea for which he has not previously been recognised. The result of the operation was that 330,000 men were evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk ensuring they were available to defend Britain against a possible invasion.

Among the many things that struck me whilst reading the book was the so-called ‘fog of war’. Today, our military leaders have drones, satellites and instant communication at their disposal. It’s easy to forget what it must have been like to make crucial decisions about the direction of a war based on information that could be both unreliable and/or out of date. This was a time when communication still relied on letters, telegrams or face-to-face meetings.

One can’t really review a book like this without mentioning some of the idiosyncrasies of Churchill the man that it reveals. For example, his preferred breakfast tray which would contain a glass of Scotch and soda between the rack of toast and plate of eggs, his penchant for a two-hour afternoon nap followed by a hot bath from which he would rise clad only in a bath towel or sometimes not even that. Furthermore, one has to marvel at his capacity for alcohol. After the aforementioned whisky and soda at breakfast, ‘a bottle of Pol Roger champagne would be consumed at lunch, and another bottle at dinner, chased by a fine port or brandy digestif into the small hours’.  The author reports that when Churchill was asked once how he managed to drink during the day he replied, “Practice”.

The author describes Churchill when he became Prime Minister as ‘an amalgam of irreconcilable parts: showman, show-off, blow-hard, poet, journalist, historian, adventurer, melancholic…’. But, by golly, if ever there was a case of the right person in the right place at the right time, it was Winston Churchill in 1940.

I found this book absolutely fascinating and would recommend it to anyone interested in this period of European history or the role of leadership in time of crisis.  It has extensive references and also some fabulous photographs of which my favourite is one captioned ‘Londoners listening to Churchill’ which shows people in a pub gathered around the radio.

Darkest Hour is my choice for this month’s theme of the Bookbum Book Club. It also forms part of my From Page to Screen Reading Challenge. Look out for my comparison of the book and the film (for which the author wrote the screenplay) in the next few days.

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In three words: Compelling, detailed, insightful

Try something similar…Darkest Hour (the film, starring Gary Oldman)

Anthony McCartenAbout the Author

Anthony McCarten’s debut novel, Spinners, won international acclaim, and was followed by The English Harem and the award winning Death of a Superhero, and Show of Hands, all four books being translated into fourteen languages. McCarten has also written twelve stage plays, including the worldwide success ‘Ladies’ Night’, which won France’s Molière Prize, the Meilleure Pièce Comique, in 2001, and ‘Via Satellite’, which he adapted into a feature film and directed, premiered at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival. Also a filmmaker, he has thrice adapted his own plays or novels into feature films, most recently Death Of A Superhero (2011) which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Anthony divides his time between London and Los Angeles.

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Blog Tour/Review: The Million Dollar Duchesses by Julie Ferry

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I recently read Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth and glimpsed just a little of the complexities of navigating a path through the upper echelons of American society in the so-called Gilded Age.  So I was thrilled when the opportunity arose to learn about the fact behind the fiction and join the blog tour for Julie Ferry’s The Million Dollar Duchesses.  Subtitled How America’s Heiresses Seduced the Aristocracy, you can read my review of this fascinating book below.

Do check out the tour schedule at the bottom of this post for details of the other great book bloggers taking part in the tour.

The Million Dollar DuchessesAbout the Book

‘The American girl has the advantage of her English sister in that she possesses all that the other lacks…’ – Titled Americans

On 6th November 1895, the young and brilliant heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt wedded the near-bankrupt Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough. A dazzling yet miserable match was made – one which glittered above all others for high society’s unofficial marriage brokers who, in a single year, initiated and manipulated a series of spectacular transatlantic pairings. Injecting millions of dollars into the ailing aristocracy; fame, money, power and prestige were all at play.

Characterised by scandal, illicit affairs, spurned loves and unexpected deaths, The Million Dollar Duchesses reveals the machinations which led to these most influential matches between America’s heiresses and Britain’s elite. The Gilded Age was a tumultuous period for society’s most eligible.

(The book was previously published under the title The Transatlantic Marriage Bureau)

Format: Paperback (320 pp.)         Publisher: Aurum Press
Published in UK: 3rd May 2018     Genre: Non-Fiction, History

Pre-order/Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk  ǀ  Amazon.com  ǀ Hive.co.uk (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find The Million Dollar Duchesses on Goodreads

My Review

The Million Dollar Duchesses focuses on the events of a single year – 1895 – in which a number of transatlantic marriages took place between wealthy American heiresses and not so wealthy but titled British aristocrats.   Unfortunately for the participants, very few were love matches but more akin to business transactions, negotiated by a select band of very influential society ladies, including the redoubtable Alva Vanderbilt, Consuelo Manchester and Minnie Paget.

Manoeuvring young American heiresses into situations where they could encounter potential marriage partners was a strategic operation.  ‘All of London society was a convoluted and never-ending performance.  The unremitting rounds of formal functions were littered with the great and the good of the aristocracy, whom Minnie saw simply as props to be manoeuvred into the best position to produce a breathtaking show.’  It was also a lucrative, albeit clandestine, business for these society ‘matchmakers’, who would be rewarded with gifts or might have their dressmaker’s or milliner’s accounts settled by grateful relatives.

I came across some fascinating nuggets of information in the book, such as the fact that those fortunate enough to have the Prince of Wales stay with them would be obliged to install in their home a ‘Post Office to meet his communication needs’.   I was also frankly in awe of the stamina of these society ladies who not only underwent up to six changes of outfit a day during the Season but were expected to attend a dizzying round of activities.  For example, the ‘strict timetable’ of a day in the summer Season at Newport, Rhode Island might involve breakfast, dealing with correspondence, a morning call at the Casino for tennis or bowling, bathing at the exclusive Bailey’s Beach, luncheon on a yacht moored in the harbour, an afternoon carriage parade, visits to other ladies followed by preparing for the evening’s formal dinner party or ball and then dancing the night away.   On the other hand, I could not admire the vast sums of money spent on flowers, gifts, jewellery and dresses that might only be worn once, which seemed to verge on the grotesque.  No, actually, it was grotesque.

As the author notes, at a time when ‘men were rulers of Wall Street and women were discouraged from asserting themselves in business or politics, marriage was their only route to power’.  I have to say I was left with the impression that, in many cases, the women featured were more intelligent, cultured and accomplished than the supposedly eligible bachelors they were destined to marry and might well have proved equal to those men in business or politics.

We talk today about ‘celebrity culture’ but I also found it interesting that scrutiny by the media of these society figures seemed as prevalent then as it is today and that there was a degree of mutual dependence.  The great society ladies needed their entertainments, costume balls and the like to be featured in the newspapers and gossip columns of the day to confirm their position in society.  ‘It was a chance to be seen by reporters, society watchers and the general public.  An opportunity to be talked about, written about and remain a constant presence in public consciousness.’   Finding and sustaining your position in the ‘pecking order’ was a competitive endeavour worthy of the Olympic Games!

The book is clearly the product of extensive research by the author, as witnessed by the comprehensive notes and detailed bibliography at the end of the book.  Also included is a helpful dramatis personae and family trees of the key players.   The book includes quotes from contemporary newspaper articles, gossip columns, letters and memoirs although the author freely admits that there are limited primary sources because many of the heiresses’ personal recollections have not survived, possibly because they were deliberately destroyed after their deaths.    From time to time, the author indulges in speculation about the feelings and emotions of some of the characters meaning those sections are sprinkled with phrases such as ‘must have’, ‘would have’ and ‘in all probability’.

The Million Dollar Duchesses is a fascinating insight into the lives of women who changed the face of British society at the end of the 19th century and inspired fictional counterparts in novels such as Edith Wharton’s The Buccaneers and The House of Mirth.

I received a review copy courtesy of the author, publishers Aurum Press and Anne Cater at Random Things Tours in return for an honest and unbiased review.

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In three words: Fascinating, detailed, informative

Try something similar…The Buccaneers by Edith Wharton

Julie FerryAbout the Author

Julie Ferry is a freelance journalist who has written for the Guardian, Sunday Times, Sunday Telegraph and the Independent, among others. She writes on subjects ranging from protecting women’s rights to discovering Paris alone. She graduated from Cardiff University with a degree in English Literature and then upped sticks and moved to a tiny island between Japan and South Korea to teach English, where she quickly got used to being followed around the supermarket by her students. It was in Japan that she got her first by-line and was quickly hooked. Since then, she’s been fortunate to write for most of her favourite publications, but always harboured dreams of seeing her name on the front of a book. Now, she’s managing to combine her love of writing and an obsession with interesting and largely unknown women from history, with the school run in Bristol, where she lives with her husband and two children.

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