Churchill and the Generals

by Barrie Pitt

Book by Pitt, Barrie

Genres: Nonfiction, Military Fiction, World War II

196 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1982

About the author

Barrie William Edward Pitt was educated at Portsmouth Southern Grammar School before becoming a bank clerk. After service in the Second World War Pitt worked as a surveyor, joined 21 SAS (TA), with whom he rose to the rank of sergeant, and started to write for the magazine Adventure. Pitt also worked for a time as an information officer at the Atomic Energy Authority establishment at Aldermaston, where he demonstrated a talent for turning scientific information into readable prose

In 1958, Pitt wrote a novel, The Edge of Battle, and Zeebrugge, an admired account of the First World War raid on the Belgian U-boat base. This led to a long and prolific career as an author and editor of popular histories. Under the overall editorship of Sir Basil Liddell-Hart, he was responsible for the first major part-work, Purnell's History of the Second World War, a 96-instalment mass circulation series which was launched in 1966 at the Imperial War Museum. He also worked as a researcher for the 1960s BBC television series The Great War.

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book but doesn’t give a lot of details about Churchill’s thoughts of his generals after the war, only during the first few years of WWII while he was in control of the British military.

[Gobi Tharmarajah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written. However, the details are shallower than you would expect. I am confused over the image of Churchill after reading this book.