History buffs must read Erik Larson’s new book, “The Splendid and the Vile.” This is how history should be written, so readable. The time is 1940-41, Winston Churchill has been prime minister for a year, London and other cities in Britain are being bombed mercilessly and the Luftwaffe is trying to destroy the RAF. Larson mixes brief descriptions of the war’s progress with illuminating personal scenes about families at the time, especially Churchill’s, even the sexual shenanigans, and paints portraits of the Nazis as well. The book shifts scenes rapidly like a well edited film and the reader’s imagination is captivated.
In his preamble, Larson writes:
In particular I thought about Winston Churchill: How did he withstand it? And his family and friends? What was it like for him to have his city bombed for nights on end and to know full well that these air raids, however, were likely only a preamble to far worse, a German invasion of the sea and sky, with parachutists dropping into his garden, Panzer tanks clanking through Trafalgar Square, and poison gas wafting over the beach where once he painted the sea.
Hermann Göring loved elaborate uniforms and stolen art. Convicted at Nuremberg he swallowed a cyanide pill the day before his execution was scheduled.
A couple of vignettes to give readers a flavour of this marvellous work of history. With France subdued Hermann Göring and two Luftwaffe officers and their entourage have driven in large Mercedes-Benzes to the French coast and a promontory jutting into the sea:
The cars climbed to the top of Cap Blanc-Nez, one of the highest points on the French coast and in more peaceful time, a popular picnic ground. Here the officers set up tables and chairs and laid out a meal of sandwiches and champagne. The officers were there to watch the start of the Luftwaffe’s attack on London, set to begin that afternoon.
At about two o’clock continental time, Göring and others heard the first sounds of the bombers, a low hum rising to the north and south. Officers stood on their toes to scan the horizon. Göring raised his binoculars. An officer called and pointed down the coast. Soon the sky was filled with bombers and their fighter escorts, and high above them, barely visible, waves of single-engine Messerschmitt 109s, positioned to take on the British fighters, that undoubtedly would rise to meet the assault.
So confident was Göring that the day would bring the Luftwaffe a stunning success, he announced to radio reporters present on the cliff that he had taken personal command of the attack. . . The mood on the clifftop was one of elation. Barely able to restrain his glee, Goring grasped the shoulder of an officer next to him and beaming, shook it hard, as if acting for Gœbbel’s Ministry of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda.
Harry Hopkins, President Roosevelt’s envoy, charmed Winston Churchill and his inner circle
Churchill wooed President Roosevelt like an ardent suitor, knowing that to beat Nazi Germany Britain needed American forces to join the war. Roosevelt sent a personal envoy to Downing Street. Harry Hopkins was seriously ill after surgery for cancer, nondescript and always it seemed wearing a tatty greatcoat, but Hopkins had an engaging manner that charmed his hosts. On one of his last nights before returning to the US, Harry Hopkins attended a dinner at Glasgow. Larson’s description of what happened:
Churchills’ doctor, Wilson, sat beside Hopkins, and was struck anew by how dishevelled he looked. Speeches followed. At length it was Hopkins’ turn.
“I suppose you wish to know what I am going to say to President Roosevelt on my return,” he said.
This was an understatement. Churchill was desperate to know how well his courtship of Hopkins was progressing, and what indeed he would tell the president.
“Well,” Hopkins said, “I am going to quote you one verse from the Book of Books, in the truth of which .. my own mother was brought up. . . “
Hopkins dropped his voice to a near whisper and recited a passage from the Bible’s Book of Ruth: “Wither thou goest, I will go, and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.”
Then softly, he added: “Even to the end.”
The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz, Erik Larson. Crown, ISBN: 9780385348713 ISBN-10: 0385348711
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