is a biography that deals with Churchill's training and military campaigns. Russell earlier wrote a book on the various awards and decorations Churchill received. I quite enjoyed the book.The book starts with Churchill's childhood. He showed an interest in the military relatively early on. Both with toy soldiers and the adventure stories of the day. There's coverage of his experiences in the five conflicts he took part in. They were in India, Sudan, Cuba [as a journalist], Second Boer war [as journalist and soldier] and First World War. His time in the reserves comes up.
Lots of research is in this book. At this point I'm a relative expert on the Sudan campaign but there is some new material here that I was unaware of. I do have to wonder about the audience for this book. Occasionally introductory material is given on such things as the British Empire. However knowledge of Churchill's life is assumed. Several references are made to his girlfriend throughout the Boer war section the next we here he's married to someone else. There are some mistakes like saying that the Suez Canal was controlled by a British company, it was actually French. There are attempts to defend Churchill from various criticisms in the text. Russell is evidently a Churchill partisan. That being said this is an important part of a Churchill bookshelf.
Highly recommended!
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