The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz

by Erik Larson

Coveting power for power’s sake was a “base” pursuit, he wrote, adding, “But power in a national crisis, when a man believes he knows what orders should be given, is a blessing.”

“I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.”

“It would be foolish to disguise the gravity of the hour,” he said. “It would be still more foolish to lose heart and courage.”

Here, as in other speeches, Churchill demonstrated a striking trait: his knack for making people feel loftier, stronger, and, above all, more courageous.

“We shall go on to the end,” he said, in a crescendo of ferocity and confidence. “We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender—”

“Always remember, Clemmie, that I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.”

Britain of fifty American warships was a decidedly

“Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few.”

Never was there such a contrast of natural splendor and human vileness.”

He selected Sir John Singleton, a justice of the King’s Bench Division who was best known for presiding over the 1936 trial of Buck Ruxton in the notorious “Bodies Under the Bridge” case, in which Ruxton was convicted of killing his wife and housemaid and butchering them into more than seventy pieces, most of these later found in a bundle under a bridge.

The case was also known as “the Jigsaw Murders,” an allusion to the heroic forensic effort to piece together the victims’ bodies.

He presented his vision of a United States of Europe, with Britain as its architect. He might have been speaking before the House of Commons, rather than to a small group of men fogged by cigars and alcohol in a quiet country house. “We seek no treasure,” Churchill said, “we seek no territorial gains, we seek only the right of man to be free; we seek his right to worship his God, to lead his life in his own way, secure from persecution. As the humble laborer returns from his work when the day is done, and sees the smoke curling upwards from his cottage home in the serene evening sky, we wish him to know that no rat-a-tat-tat”—here Churchill knocked loudly on the table—“of the secret police upon his door will disturb his leisure or interrupt his rest.” He said Britain sought only government by popular consent, freedom to say whatever one wished, and the equality of all people in the eyes of the law. “But war aims other than these we have none.”

“We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire. Neither the sudden shock of battle, nor the long-drawn trials of vigilance and exertion will wear us down. “Give us the tools, and we will finish the job.”

They arrived at Stansted Park in time for afternoon tea. Mary met Moyra for the first time and was pleasantly surprised. “I was rather alarmed by what I had been previously told—but she turned out to be the best of company. Reserved but gay.”