Winston’s War: A Novel of Conspiracy by Michael Dobbs (PDF)

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From Michael Dobbs, author of the book that inspired the smash hit Netflix series House of Cards, comes Winston’s War, a thrilling novel about the dawn of WWII and Winston Churchill’s rise to power.At the beginning of WWII, Neville Chamberlain believes he has bought “peace for our time” from Adolph Hitler, who has just seized Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland. The English are alarmed by the huge German army, while the soldiers that would defend London don’t even have steel helmets. For many, compromise and appeasement seem to be England’s best defense.But there are a few leaders who don’t agree. Among them is Winston Churchill, who understands that the relentless march of fascism will be democracy’s death knell. In October 1938, Churchill pleads his case in the press to the BBC’s Guy Burgess. One of these two will become the most revered man of his time, and the other will be known as the greatest of traitors.This stunning novel brings to life the surprising political intrigues that set the stage for World War II, and brings alive the passionate, grumpy, whiskey-drinking Winston Churchill, as he inspires his fellow countrymen to take on the world’s mightiest army.Includes bonus reading group guidePraise for Michael Dobbs, bestselling author of House of Cards, the book that inspired the Netflix series:”An intriguing tale of espionage and treason… this is a work to enthrall.”—Daily Mail”An author who can bring historical happenings so vitally back to life and made all the more impressive by being historically accurate in every respect.”—Times of London”A fascinating tale of conspiracy, blackmail, and treachery.”—Irish Independent”Dobbs takes us so far inside the mind of Winston Churchill that we feel as though we actually are him.”—Booklist”Dobbs infuses dramatic tension, inventive plots, and heady pacing in the narration of a British icon’s noblest hours.”—Publishers Weekly “Dobbs has done a brilliant job in evoking the drama and despair of Britain hovering on the edge of the abyss.”—Sunday Express

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐I very much wanted to love this book. Having read an excellent one-volume biography of Churchill (if such a life can be crammed into a single volume), having greatly enjoyed Michael Dobbs’ riveting fresh look at the Cuban Missile Crisis, and being a fan of historical fiction, I eagerly embarked on this multi-volume historical fiction series on one of the past century’s greatest leaders and most accomplished individuals.However, I must say, the book delivers less than its jacket cover and glowing blurbs promise. It is a fine book as far as it goes, and I plan on reading the next volume, with the hope that Dobbs will do better, but ultimately was disappointed.These are momentous, dramatic events that form the heart of this novel and the ones to come. They have tremendous, inherent power. Hitler is on the march in Europe. The only voice of reason is Churchill. We, the reader, know this to be true. We know that when Chamberlain seeks peace, he is the wrong path. How does Churchill feel about this? How does he deal with these frustrations? He has had an amazingly full, rich career already – with ups and downs, and with what the British public view to be heroic acts as well as tragic, bloody mistakes. He is out there warning all those who will listen about Hitler, and he is doing so with substantive information, with insight, with passion. He is letting fellow Britons know that their defenses are inadequate – he has sources inside the military, the ministries, who are telling him these things, showing him these things- he is not only a sitting member of Parliament, after all, he is Churchill.What must it have been like? Hitler on the move, Mussolini prancing around, Chamberlain ineffectual, the British public asleep. A blurb on the book cover says that Dobbs brings us inside of Churchill’s head -so that we think as he thinks.Sigh. Not so. Not in this book. We are inside Churchill’s head hardly at all. We learn hardly any of this.What do we learn, who do we meet, and what events are we witness to? We meet a few fictional side characters that Dobbs develops nicely and that we grow to care something about. We spend a lot of time with the well-known British spy, Guy Burgess. Dobbs does well in creating some suspense around a subplot involving Burgess and Churchill which I won’t spoil here. Then there are some characters floating around Churchill and Chamberlain that are nicely drawn, like Joe Kennedy. And there’s Chamberlain.While Dobbs paints these characters in a convincing way and creates dramatic tension around various conflicts involving their inter-relationships, I found myself growing impatient with their interactions. The march toward world war kept proceeding, and instead of getting insights into the key events, I kept reading about petty parliamentary backbiting and these interpersonal tensions that felt a bit contrived to me. It was as if Dobbs felt compelled to put in some “fictional” tension to justify writing this as a “novel,” when all the drama one could ever dream of was right there in front of him.It sounds crazy of me to critique this book in that way – I could never write something like this, so who am I to criticize? I just know how good Dobbs is at writing actual history, so I can imagine what he could have done here had he raised his sights more.As it is, I found myself pulled along by Dobbs’ skilled writing and the inherent drama of the “big events” – it’s unavoidable, though Dobbs didn’t overtly mine it- and so I read it through quickly to the end. But I felt he could have done so much more.I thought, for example, that the book would have benefited greatly from more historical references – every now and then there’s an actual letter – and more detailed notes. Major decisions seem to be made based on internal (petty) politics without any consideration of larger geopolitical issues. If this is in fact supported by the historical record, such notes or other references would make the novel much more compelling. Without it, a reader like me is left wondering “is that really something that could have happened?”In other words, the strength of historical fiction lies in the suspension of disbelief. That’s what made Killer Angels such a timeless Civil War classic -its realistic portrayal of what the generals were thinking and doing during the Battle of Gettysburg. Had that book made key battlefield decisions seem to hinge on minor interpersonal disputes alone (though of course those have their place), without also bringing in everything else about the battle that made it so memorable, the reader would have scratched his head and wondered, “surely Lee didn’t do that just because Pickett insulted him five years ago and he never forgave him?”So, I will read the next book in this series. But if it focuses as much on the minor details – actual or invented – at the expense of the greater sweep of events – it is that sweep which is why I’m interested in these books, after all – then it will be my last.

⭐We get a lot of detail here. Some of it is true, but this is a novel and some of the conversations are informed guesswork. Calling the book Winston’s War suggests Churchill will be a major part of the story. He is and he isn’t. In later books in the series we get good views of Winston. In this novel he becomes Prime Minister with about ten pages left. Oh, well.

⭐This book was enjoyable from start to finish. The sense of injustice done by the conspirators to a well-loved icon of history was intense, but because the participants in the conspiracy have been fully exposed as failures, the reader can revel in the knowledge that history has judged them.The conspiracy here is the effort of the Chamberlain Ministry to exclude the “war-monger” Winston Churchill from the councils of government in the events between Neville Chamberlain’s Munich Pact with Adolf Hitler for “peace in our time” and the German invasion of Poland less than a year later.In reading this account, one gets the sense of discovering enjoyable details: Churchill’s uneasy finances and the advantage taken by the conspirators of his need for a loan, his encounter with Guy Burgess that opens the story; the eventual defection of Burgess to the Soviet Union; the growing knowledge in the Ministry that appeasement is failing, and their efforts to keep that knowledge from the British populace.Because I read “Winston’s War” at the same time as reading “13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi”, the similarities of the two conspiracies were borne in on me: in both cases, one realizes public officials deciding to be less than honest or less than forthcoming is perhaps the result of a belief that a greater purpose is served by the conspiracy. For Chamberlain and the proponents of appeasement, the lack of readiness in Britain for war made peace at all costs the only choice.Fortunately for us all, Chamberlain’s policy was destroyed when Germany abrogated the pact, and it was Winston Churchill’s leadership that guided Britain through its involvement in WWII. History has yet to reveal the conclusion, fortunate or otherwise, to the conspiracy involving the US State Department, the Obama Administration, and the events of 9-11, 2012, in Beghazi.

⭐**Should Read as 4.5 Stars!**Read this book in 2006, and its the 1st of a 4 part series featuring Winston Churchill.The historical details concerning this period of history has been very well researched by the auhtor, and used within this story of war, power and conspiracy.Set in 1938 and Winston Churchill is at his lowest point, mocked and reviled by his enemies, and defeated by Neville Chamberlain who has done a deal with the Nazis of Adolf Hitler.All of a sudden Winston Churchill is visited by a journalist from the BBC, a man named Guy Burgess, but unknown to Churchill this man will later become known as a Soviet spy, and that visit will turn out to be a turning point in Churchill’s life and a reason to fight, and in the end win his personal war.What will follow is a story about conspiracy, chance and treachery that will turn Churchill from a pariah into a messiah for the British people, after the fall of Chamberlain and his elevation to Prime Minister.Highly recommended, for this is an amazing begin of Churchill as a politician and human being, a life with a lot of ups and downs, and it tells of political intrigue and faults of the highest personal calibre, and that’s why I like to call this first episode: “A Compelling Churchill’s Clash”!

⭐As a fan of Michael Dobbs’ work and of Winston Churchill it was a pleasant surprise to come across this historical novel that meets the two worlds.The book is the first of a series, that takes it under itself to speculate as to Churchill’s inner world, conflicts and conversations, while portraying very accurate historical set of events, through parallel plot lines of “common” people and their part in the daily events.Thus we learn about Mac the barber (who hears all the Whitehall gossip as a fly on the wall) and his affair with the Westminster prostitute Carol, we also hear of army Sergeant Jerry White who partakes in the so called “phony” war the early years of WW2 with the British doomed campaign in the Scandinavians, and his relationship with postmistress Sue, who will play a prominent role later with Churchill’s rise to power.We also get a glimpse of the household of Joe Kennedy, american ambassador and great appeaser, his niece’s fictional affair with Churchill’s most loyal guy Bracken, and even get a glimpse to the inner court of George VI.The major story line is of course Churchill and his rise from political exile to greatness, through the unlikely help of one Guy Burgess, the MI5 agent and newsmen, to be known later as a notorious spy to the soviet union.The story is written very well, and without spoiling too much of the action, i was very much taken by the political conversation, even more than by the fiction story-line of the “common” people.. at first i thought the connection of Burgess/Churchill was too much, but it grows on you, and you actually learn to like Burgess and even relate to his motives, which in retrospective, I still don’t understand why Dobbs had done this … maybe just to spice things a bit.in all fairness, this is not Dobbs’ greatest novel but it is good, especially if you like political novels and are a WWII freak like me. the dialogues are well written and merge with the day to day and the historical events.The reasons i gave it only 3 stars are: (a) If you are not an history freak, this might prove tedious at times, with the story dragging over an icky period of time known as Britain’s phony war against Germany. (b) At times it seems as if Dobbs’ personal take on people and events places more weight than what you’d expect in an historical novel: the appeasers are portrayed as sheer evil & Churchill is almost a Jesus-like figure, born to carry the (western) world’s burden while nailed to the cross. I sense that if you want to write a fiction novel on the edge of non-fiction, these views needs to be slightly more subtle.At the end of the day the book is a good read or a great one for history (especially WWII) lovers. which is much more than what i can say on the 2nd book in the serious “Never surrender”if you like Dobbs + history, dont think twice though and read it.

⭐SAFE READING – NO SPOILERSIf you want details of the story, see other reviews; I am going to comment generally.I have the book (hardcover) and the audiobook, now on my iPod with all the other Michael Dobbs’, a writer I recommend highly. With his own life experiences, his well-researched expertise as a modern historian and skill as a writer, he manages to weave stories which capture the time, the events and the characters and shine a revelatory searchlight into dark corners. Little in the events that helped to shape the modern world shocks him and he manages, with great skill, to make these household names human. But enough of the stories, all which I recommend. I hope Michael Dobbs made his money before the book prices fell. (Apart from their quality, appearance and feeling, these hardcover prices are astonishing.)I have most of Dobbs’ and, with Tim Pigot-Smith reading, they are a joy. I listen a lot in the car.Pigot-Smith is a wonderful reader, usually understated with just enough of a difference in the voice to create, establish and sustain a character throughout the book. I found him first in the Dobb’s Churchill books, all of which he has read on CD, as I researched Churchill. Shut your eyes (not recommended on the M6, especially around Birmingham!) and it is Churchill there in the car with you. Pigot-Smith has him to perfection. Combined with Dobbs’ insightful (and understated) writing, they are a perfect team.

⭐The reviews for this book are mixed. I can only say, read my other reviews to know whether I am easily pleased or not! I read this book in just under 24 hours, simply unable to put it down. I found the mix of fiction/fact to be good enough to hold my attention and the writing strong enough that nothing jarred, except for the slightly wrong details of the naive Guy Fawkes’ unfortunate demise. But that is by the way, the book itself, centring as it does on Churchill, someone I freely admit to admiring a great deal, showed the back stabbing politicians at work then as they do now. Everything is political. If you want a good solid read, go no further than Michael Dobbs’ excellent book and then go read the rest. I have the other three sitting here awaiting my eager eyes and attention. I don’t say that lightly, believe me! As a writer myself I am ultra critical of other writers’ style, mistakes and interpretations, so this, from me, is high praise indeed.

⭐I enjoyed reading about the political machinations, deceit, subterfuge and heroism of the accounts leading up to Churchill taking charge. The writing was excellent as was the characterisations of each protagonist.

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