Is The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill one of the All-TIME 100 Best Nonfiction Books? TIME thinks so. Check it out.

The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill

By Glen Levy | August 30, 2011 | +

Author: William Manchester

Year Released: 1983

The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Alone, 1932-1940 (published in 1988) was William Manchester’s sequel to The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Visions of Glory, 1874-1932 (published in 1983). Alone picks up the story with Churchill cast into the political wilderness and entering what the author believed was the most crucial period of the politician’s extraordinary life — his “finest hour,” if you will — which culminated in his becoming Prime Minister of Britain in 1940, his country once again at war with Germany. Churchill, as Manchester poignantly puts it, “resolved to lead Britain and her fading empire in one last great struggle worthy of all they had been.”

Manchester’s acumen is to deftly juxtapose the political analysis with highly readable prose, neglecting neither the events nor the reader. But skilled a wordsmith as Manchester was, not even he could cheat death, and so the proposed third volume — tentatively titled The Last Lion: Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965 and scheduled for publication in 2011 — will be finished by his close friend Paul Reid. Manchester and Reid shared a love of the Boston Red Sox, and Reid likened the task of finishing Manchester’s trilogy to being called to end a game for Red Sox legend Ted Williams.

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Melissa

Reblogged this on Swamp of Boredom and commented:
I’m reblogging this for my own reference and also to share with my readers (all 34 of you;)). Since the release of the 1001 Books App on Tuesday, I’ve been book list crazy. Since I like non-fiction – especially non-fiction centered on historical events and people, not so much current people – and have read a couple of excellent non-fiction books in the last year (Only Yesterday, Empire of the Summer Moon) I wondered if there was a list of recommended non-fiction books. Of course there is. I found one from the Guardain (UK) that is, obviously, geared towards British readers and that, unlike Time’s list, encompasses all non-fiction ever written. This list from Time consists of books only since Time began publishing, 1923. There are a few that don’t interest me at all and the biography choices focus too heavily on women and African Americans, IMO, but overall the list is excellent.
Enjoy!