{"product_id":"the-splendid-and-the-vile-a-saga-of-churchill-family-and-defiance-during-the-blitz","title":"The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e#1 \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eNEW YORK TIMES \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eBESTSELLER • The author of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Devil in the White City\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eDead Wake\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e delivers an intimate chronicle of Winston Churchill and London during the Blitz—an inspiring portrait of courage and leadership in a time of unprecedented crisis\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e“One of [Erik Larson’s] best books yet . . . perfectly timed for the moment.”—\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eTime\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e • \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e“A bravura performance by one of America’s greatest storytellers.”—NPR\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eNAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eThe New York Times Book Review \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e• \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eTime \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e• \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eVogue\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e • NPR • \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Washington Post • Chicago Tribune\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e • \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Globe \u0026amp; Mail • Fortune\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e • Bloomberg • \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eNew York Post • \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eThe New York Public Library • \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e • \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eLibraryReads \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e• \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003ePopMatters\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Splendid and the Vile\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, 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.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Splendid and the Vile\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e 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.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv id=\"aplus_feature_div\" class=\"celwidget\" data-feature-name=\"aplus\" data-csa-c-type=\"widget\" data-csa-c-content-id=\"aplus\" data-csa-c-slot-id=\"aplus_feature_div\" data-csa-c-asin=\"\" data-csa-c-is-in-initial-active-row=\"false\" data-csa-c-id=\"66mlvs-katxs3-lerjmu-99eawl\" data-cel-widget=\"aplus_feature_div\"\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv id=\"aplus\" class=\"a-section a-spacing-large bucket\"\u003e\r\n\u003ch2\u003eFrom the Publisher\u003c\/h2\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"aplus-v2 desktop celwidget\" data-csa-c-id=\"r2o8o5-xesozy-j4kyth-rsuu9f\" data-cel-widget=\"aplus\" cel_widget_id=\"aplus\"\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"celwidget aplus-module module-12 aplus-standard\" data-csa-c-id=\"po8ruw-p7y478-sj288u-e0masd\" data-cel-widget=\"aplus-module-12\" cel_widget_id=\"aplus-module-12\"\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"aplus-module-wrapper apm-spacing apm-floatnone apm-fixed-width\"\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"apm-sidemodule aplus-module-content\"\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"apm-hero-image\"\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Bill Gates says, “Larson gives the reader a ‘you are there’ sense of the intensity...”\" src=\"https:\/\/m.media-amazon.com\/images\/S\/aplus-media-library-service-media\/a7d3f665-9f69-4612-b66c-69eccfd4d236.__CR0,0,970,300_PT0_SX970_V1___.jpg\" class=\"\" data-src=\"https:\/\/m.media-amazon.com\/images\/S\/aplus-media-library-service-media\/a7d3f665-9f69-4612-b66c-69eccfd4d236.__CR0,0,970,300_PT0_SX970_V1___.jpg\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\r\n\u003c\/div\u003e\r\n\u003c\/div\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\r\n\u003c\/div\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"celwidget aplus-module module-9 aplus-standard\" data-csa-c-id=\"ego3pe-r810l4-k4lvel-7zkwb7\" data-cel-widget=\"aplus-module-9\" cel_widget_id=\"aplus-module-9\"\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"aplus-module-wrapper apm-fixed-width\"\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"apm-spacing apm-fixed-width\"\u003e\r\n\u003ctable class=\"apm-fixed-width apm-eventhirdcol-table\"\u003e\r\n\u003ctbody\u003e\r\n\u003ctr\u003e\r\n\u003cth class=\"apm-center\"\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"apm-eventhirdcol apm-floatleft\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"From the author of DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY\" src=\"https:\/\/m.media-amazon.com\/images\/S\/aplus-media-library-service-media\/0e3ce1da-90a4-43fe-92ef-621199a6844a.__CR0,0,300,300_PT0_SX300_V1___.jpg\" class=\"a-spacing-mini\" data-src=\"https:\/\/m.media-amazon.com\/images\/S\/aplus-media-library-service-media\/0e3ce1da-90a4-43fe-92ef-621199a6844a.__CR0,0,300,300_PT0_SX300_V1___.jpg\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003c\/div\u003e\r\n\u003c\/th\u003e\r\n\u003cth class=\"apm-center\"\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"apm-eventhirdcol apm-floatleft\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"NPRsays, “A bravura performance byone of America’s greatest storytellers.”\" src=\"https:\/\/m.media-amazon.com\/images\/S\/aplus-media-library-service-media\/3412b2bc-a5ef-4ec0-9a19-ab59e8c51650.__CR0,0,300,300_PT0_SX300_V1___.jpg\" class=\"a-spacing-mini\" data-src=\"https:\/\/m.media-amazon.com\/images\/S\/aplus-media-library-service-media\/3412b2bc-a5ef-4ec0-9a19-ab59e8c51650.__CR0,0,300,300_PT0_SX300_V1___.jpg\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003c\/div\u003e\r\n\u003c\/th\u003e\r\n\u003cth class=\"apm-center\"\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"apm-eventhirdcol apm-floatleft\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"Timesays, “One of [Erik Larson’s] best books yet ... perfectly timed for the moment.”\" src=\"https:\/\/m.media-amazon.com\/images\/S\/aplus-media-library-service-media\/dae6e0a5-b636-45b3-a231-955440ca2903.__CR0,0,300,300_PT0_SX300_V1___.jpg\" class=\"a-spacing-mini\" data-src=\"https:\/\/m.media-amazon.com\/images\/S\/aplus-media-library-service-media\/dae6e0a5-b636-45b3-a231-955440ca2903.__CR0,0,300,300_PT0_SX300_V1___.jpg\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003c\/div\u003e\r\n\u003c\/th\u003e\r\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\r\n\u003ctr\u003e\r\n\u003ctd class=\"apm-top\"\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\r\n\u003ctd class=\"apm-top\"\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\r\n\u003ctd class=\"apm-top\"\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\r\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\r\n\u003c\/tbody\u003e\r\n\u003c\/table\u003e\r\n\u003c\/div\u003e\r\n\u003c\/div\u003e\r\n\u003c\/div\u003e\r\n\u003c\/div\u003e\r\n\u003c\/div\u003e\r\n\u003c\/div\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv id=\"editorialReviews-btf-ri_feature_div\" class=\"celwidget\" data-feature-name=\"editorialReviews-btf-ri\" data-csa-c-type=\"widget\" data-csa-c-content-id=\"editorialReviews-btf-ri\" data-csa-c-slot-id=\"editorialReviews-btf-ri_feature_div\" data-csa-c-asin=\"\" data-csa-c-is-in-initial-active-row=\"false\" data-csa-c-id=\"gaaax0-k6hjag-xx7ua8-tei0y3\" data-cel-widget=\"editorialReviews-btf-ri_feature_div\"\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"a-section a-spacing-small a-padding-base\"\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"a-row a-expander-container a-expander-extend-container\"\u003e\r\n\u003ch3\u003e\u003cspan\u003eReview\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"a-section a-spacing-small a-padding-small\"\u003e\r\n\u003cspan\u003e“The kind of page-turner you always want in a history book but rarely get . . . Larson gives the reader a ‘you are there’ sense of the intensity of Churchill’s work with his team on life-and-death challenges—and solving them at a pace I found to be mind-blowing.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e—Bill Gates, GatesNotes\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Published in the midst of one of the greatest international crises since World War II, Larson’s new book tells the story of London facing the Blitz during that war through the characters of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, members of his family and his various advisers. Readers are left with 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.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e—\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eTime\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Erik Larson, in his suspenseful new book, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Splendid and the Vile\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, captures the foreboding that settled on London leading up to the bombardment, as well as Churchill’s determination not to give in. . . . Plus, there is Larson’s reliable, cinematic writing and his intimate portrayal of Churchill.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e—\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“An enthralling page-turner.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e—\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eO: The Oprah Magazine\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A damn good story. There are narrative arcs, heroes, villains, and suspense aplenty to craft the kind of rich, immersive histories that have become Larson’s trademark.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003e—Rolling Stone\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“This is Erik Larson’s moment. His affecting and affectionate chronicle of the Churchill family during the Blitz, the Nazi World War II bombing campaign against Great Britain, has found a hungry audience in the United States.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003e—The Boston Globe\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Through the remarkably skillful use of intimate diaries as well as public documents, some newly released, Larson has transformed the well-known record of 12 turbulent months, stretching from May of 1940 through May of 1941, into a book that is fresh, fast and deeply moving.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e—Candice Millard, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Larson’s book offers a delicious slice of life of the world’s last great statesman.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003e—The Wall Street Journal\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Fascinating . . . The entire book comes at the reader with breakneck speed. So much happened so quickly in those 12 months, yet Larson deftly weaves all the strands of his tale into a coherent and compelling whole.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e—Minneapolis\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eStar Tribune\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“I have an early copy of this book on my desk and idly began reading the first pages—and suddenly time disappeared.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e—\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Seattle Times\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Still, it is a time of sadness, fear, grief and uncertainty for so many, and I find myself comforted by reading about other supremely challenging times in human history, and about resilience, and hope. For this, there is no better book right now than \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Splendid and the Vile\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003e—\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eMackenzie Dawson,\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eNew York Post\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Nonfiction king Erik Larson is back.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e—\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003ePopSugar\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Spectacular . . . Larson, as America’s most compelling popular historian, is at his best in this fast-moving, immensely readable, and even warmhearted account of the battle to save Britain.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e—\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Christian Science Monitor\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\"What sets [Larson's] work apart is his signature way of using painstaking research through personal journals and historical records to spin a gripping nonfiction tale through the ordinary lives of the men and women who succeeded, failed, and perished as a result.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003e—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Splendid and the Vile\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e delivers the great saga with a novelist’s touch. It’s like you’re watching and hearing the days and nights of 1940 as a passenger on a double-decker London bus.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e—Chris Matthews\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003e, Churchill Bulletin\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The popular historian Erik Larson has done it again. As I read this book, I kept wondering what the swelling of powerful emotion was that I felt, sometimes in an almost physical sense.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e—Andrew Roberts, author of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eChurchill: Walking with Destiny,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e in \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eAir Mail\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A propulsive, character-driven account of Winston Churchill’s first year as British prime minister . . . Readers will rejoice.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e—\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e (starred review)\u003c\/span\u003e\r\n\u003c\/div\u003e\r\n\u003ch3\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"a-section a-spacing-small a-padding-small\"\u003e\r\n\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eErik Larson\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is the author of six \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e bestsellers, most recently \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e which examines how Winston Churchill and his “Secret Circle” went about surviving the German air campaign of 1940-41. Larson’s \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Devil in the White City\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is set to be a Hulu limited series; his \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eIn the Garden of Beasts\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is under option by Tom Hanks for a feature film. He recently published an audio-original ghost story, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eNo One Goes Alone\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, which has been optioned by Chernin Entertainment, in association with Netflix. His \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eThunderstruck\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e has been optioned by Sony Pictures Television for a limited TV series. Larson lives in Manhattan with his wife, who is a writer and retired neonatologist; they have three grown daughters.\u003c\/span\u003e\r\n\u003c\/div\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv data-expanded=\"true\" class=\"a-expander-content a-expander-extend-content a-expander-content-expanded\"\u003e\r\n\u003ch3\u003e\u003cspan\u003eExcerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"a-section a-spacing-small a-padding-small\"\u003e\r\n\u003cspan\u003eChapter 44\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn a Quiet Blue Day\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe day was warm and still, the sky blue above a rising haze. Temperatures by afternoon were in the nineties, odd for London. People thronged Hyde Park and lounged on chairs set out beside the Serpentine. Shoppers jammed the stores of Oxford Street and Piccadilly. The giant barrage balloons overhead cast lumbering shadows on the streets below. After the August air raid when bombs first fell on London proper, the city had retreated back into a dream of invulnerability, punctuated now and then by false alerts whose once-terrifying novelty was muted by the failure of bombers to appear. The late-summer heat imparted an air of languid complacency. In the city’s West End, theaters hosted twenty-four productions, among them the play \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eRebecca\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, adapted for the stage by Daphne du Maurier from her novel of the same name. Alfred Hitchcock’s movie version, starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine, was also playing in London, as were the films \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Thin Man\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e and the long-running \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eGaslight\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt was a fine day to spend in the cool green of the countryside.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eChurchill was at Chequers. Lord Beaverbrook departed for his country home, Cherkley Court, just after lunch, though he would later try to deny it. John Colville had left London the preceding Thursday, to begin a ten-day vacation at his aunt’s Yorkshire estate with his mother and brother, shooting partridges, playing tennis, and sampling bottles from his uncle’s collection of ancient port, in vintages dating to 1863. Mary Churchill was still at Breccles Hall with her friend and cousin Judy, continuing her reluctant role as country mouse and honoring their commitment to memorize one Shakespeare sonnet every day. That Saturday she chose Sonnet 116—in which love is the “ever-fixed mark”—and recited it to her diary. Then she went swimming. “It was so lovely—joie de vivre overcame vanity.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThrowing caution to the winds, she bathed without a cap.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e---\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eIn Berlin that Saturday morning, Joseph Goebbels prepared his lieutenants for what would occur by day’s end. The coming destruction of London, he said, “would probably represent the greatest human catastrophe in history.” He hoped to blunt the inevitable world outcry by casting the assault as a deserved response to Britain’s bombing of German civilians, but thus far British raids over Germany, including those of the night before, had not produced the levels of death and destruction that would justify such a massive reprisal.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe understood, however, that the Luftwaffe’s impending attack on London was necessary and would likely hasten the end of the war. That the English raids had been so puny was an unfortunate thing, but he would manage. He hoped Churchill would produce a worthy raid “as soon as possible.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEvery day offered a new challenge, tempered now and then by more pleasant distractions. At one meeting that week, Goebbels heard a report from Hans Hinkel, head of the ministry’s Department for Special Cultural Tasks, who’d provided a further update on the status of Jews in Germany and Austria. “In Vienna there are 47,000 Jews left out of 180,000, two-thirds of them women and about 300 men between 20 and 35,” Hinkel reported, according to minutes of the meeting. “In spite of the war it has been possible to transport a total of 17,000 Jews to the south-east. Berlin still numbers 71,800 Jews; in future about 500 Jews are to be sent to the south-east each month.” Plans were in place, Hinkel reported, to remove 60,000 Jews from Berlin in the first four months after the end of the war, when transportation would again become available. “The remaining 12,000 will likewise have disappeared within a further four weeks.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis pleased Goebbels, though he recognized that Germany’s overt anti-Semitism, long evident to the world, itself posed a significant propaganda problem. As to this, he was philosophical. “Since we are being opposed and calumniated throughout the world as enemies of the Jews,” he said, “why should we derive only the disadvantages and not also the advantages, i.e. the elimination of the Jews from the theater, the cinema, public life and administration. If we are then still attacked as enemies of the Jews we shall at least be able to say with a clear conscience: It was worth it, we have benefited from it.”\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e---\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThe Luftwaffe came at teatime...\u003c\/span\u003e\r\n\u003c\/div\u003e\r\n\u003c\/div\u003e\r\n\u003c\/div\u003e\r\n\u003c\/div\u003e\r\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Link Crave","offers":[{"title":"Kindle","offer_id":48767559500072,"sku":"‎B07TRVW6VX-1","price":19.99,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Audiobook","offer_id":48767559532840,"sku":"‎B07TRVW6VX-4","price":2.99,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":48767559565608,"sku":"‎B07TRVW6VX-2","price":15.99,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48767559598376,"sku":"‎B07TRVW6VX-3","price":17.99,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0834\/0278\/5064\/files\/81d4z08oynL._SL1500.jpg?v=1718826259","url":"https:\/\/showroommarkets.com\/products\/the-splendid-and-the-vile-a-saga-of-churchill-family-and-defiance-during-the-blitz","provider":"Showroom Markets","version":"1.0","type":"link"}