A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, Volume 1: The Birth of Britain

You might expect history written by the Master of the English language who also made some of it to be better placed than anyone, ever. He does not disappoint - it flows smoothly covering huge expanses of time and complex events in an engaging way.

He sticks absolutely to the point - power. The flow of political power. The actor's characters are deftly sketched to show their motivation and the so the whole thing comes alive and you read it like a novel, except you have to go slowly because so much is packed into each page.

Time and again the same themes emerge. Politics is inherently dirty. Good guys don't win (never give a sucker an even break) but neither do bad guys. Bad guys always fair worse if they break-the-code. In fact it seems that it is almost necessary for some extreme atrocity to occur before any period of stability.

This is how the book affected me. It made me think. Modern wars are not short-sighted, they are non-sighted. It took an amazing length of time and blood for the English government to so painfully, slowly, evolve.

I smiled at his dry comment on deteriorating behaviour during the wars of the roses "...followed by the now customary beheadings..."

You marvel with him on the courage of the chap who nailed the anti-Richard 111 doggerel on the door of the cathedral (and was presumably nailed to some other door by the king a year later - my words - Churchill avoids gruesome detail here but his allusion to it is the more menacing).

The prose is fantastic, so colourful, punchy and short and so original line after line. And I only needed the dictionary a few times! (to plash)

I am useless at Shakespeare but I understand Churchill's semantics/syntax first time, every time.

He playfully chides academic's "Bodicca" preferring "Boadicea". That's Churchill for you, a man of the people.

I picked up a copy of Simon Scharmer at the library (I quite enjoyed the TV series) read a paragraph, and then re-read some of it again and left it alone - too flowery and heavy a style. I don't have time to learn a new language.

As good as you would expect (16/18 people found this helpful)

Mr Churchill has taken on a huge subject and dealt with it fantastically. The speed of the book is just right and it is written with a feel and expression of ideas that I wasn't expecting.
The best point to note though is that he offers his own opinion on many occasions so you not only get a thoughtful perspective of history you also get an incite into a great man's view of other notable figures in English history.

A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, Volume 1: The Birth of Britain

Winston S. Churchill

Reader Reviews:

Essential (4/4 people found this helpful)

As good as you would expect (16/18 people found this helpful)

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