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The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz Audiobook
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Publisher Description
The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Devil in the White City and Dead Wake delivers a fresh and compelling portrait of Winston Churchill and London during the Blitz
NAMED ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2020 BY The Washington Post • HuffPost • The Seattle Times • Lit Hub • The Week • PopSugar
On Winston Churchill’s first day as prime minister, Adolf Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away. For the next twelve months, Hitler would wage a relentless bombing campaign, killing 45,000 Britons. It was up to Churchill to hold his country together and persuade President Franklin Roosevelt that Britain was a worthy ally—and willing to fight to the end.
In The Splendid and the Vile, Erik Larson shows, in cinematic detail, how Churchill taught the British people “the art of being fearless.” It is a story of political brinkmanship, but it’s also an intimate domestic drama, set against the backdrop of Churchill’s prime-ministerial country home, Chequers; his wartime retreat, Ditchley, where he and his entourage go when the moon is brightest and the bombing threat is highest; and of course 10 Downing Street in London. Drawing on diaries, original archival documents, and once-secret intelligence reports—some released only recently—Larson provides a new lens on London’s darkest year through the day-to-day experience of Churchill and his family: his wife, Clementine; their youngest daughter, Mary, who chafes against her parents’ wartime protectiveness; their son, Randolph, and his beautiful, unhappy wife, Pamela; Pamela’s illicit lover, a dashing American emissary; and the advisers in Churchill’s “Secret Circle,” to whom he turns in the hardest moments.
The Splendid and the Vile takes readers out of today’s political dysfunction and back to a time of true leadership, when, in the face of unrelenting horror, Churchill’s eloquence, courage, and perseverance bound a country, and a family, together.
This audiobook includes a recording of Winston Churchill's 1941 Christmas Eve speech.
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"All of Eric Larson's books that I've read or listened to are wonderful factual tales of history, circumstance and innovation. Great books for any history buffs out there."
— Alon (5 out of 5 stars)
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“A damn good story. There are narrative arcs, heroes, villains, and suspense aplenty.”
— Rolling Stone -
“An enthralling page-turner.”
— O, The Oprah Magazine -
“An indelible portrait of a nation coming together to face a brutal assault from German bombs under leadership that is wise, empathetic, and strategic—not to mention highly witty and charming.”
— Time -
“Larson has transformed the well-known record of twelve turbulent months, stretching from May of 1940 through May of 1941, into a book that is fresh, fast and deeply moving.”
— New York Times -
“Listeners will still be on the edge of their seats while listening to John Lee’s superb narration…Larson delivers the introduction and does a fine job, but Lee brings the polish and expressiveness of a gifted narrator—one who performs a perfectly credible Churchill voice. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”
— AudioFile -
“While the story of Churchill’s premiership and the Blitz have been told in greater historical depth, they’ve rarely been rendered so vividly. Readers will rejoice.”
— Publishers Weekly
Awards
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A Literary Hub Pick of the Month's Best Audiobooks
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Winner of an AudioFile Earphones Award
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A Booklist Pick of Audiobooks of the Month
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#1 New York Times bestseller
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A New York Times Bestseller in Audio
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An iBooks bestseller in Audiobooks
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A USA Today bestseller
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A New York Times Book Review pick of Best Books Now in Paperback
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One of Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books of the Year
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A Time Magazine Best Book of 2020
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A Washington Post Best Book of the Year
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A Chicago Tribune Book of the Year
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A 2020 Globe and Mail (Toronto) Best Books Pick
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A Fortune Magazine Pick of 2020's Best Books
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A New York Public Library Best Book of the Year
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A New York Post Pick of the Year
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A Vogue Best Book of 2020
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An NPR Best Book of 2020
The Splendid and the Vile Listener Reviews
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Stuart Grant, 7/20/2025
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Peter notkin, 8/24/2024
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VERY DISAPPOINTED, 12/29/2022
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MJ, 11/5/2022
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JoAnn Calnen, 8/20/2022
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William Golson, 7/27/2022
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Diana Helms, 10/18/2021
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Jostein, 9/2/2021
About Erik Larson
Erik Larson is the author of six previous national bestsellers—The Splendid and the Vile, Dead Wake, In the Garden of Beasts, Thunderstruck, The Devil in the White City, and Isaac’s Storm—which have collectively sold more than ten million copies. His books have been published in nearly twenty countries.
About Erik Larson
John Lee is the winner of numerous Earphones Awards and the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration. He has twice won acclaim as AudioFile’s Best Voice in Fiction & Classics. He also narrates video games, does voice-over work, and writes plays. He is an accomplished stage actor and has written and coproduced the feature films Breathing Hard and Forfeit. He played Alydon in the 1963–64 Doctor Who serial The Daleks.