Just Finished Reading: Young Titan – The Making of Winston Churchill by Michael Shelden (FP: 2013) [324pp]

He had known it all of his young life. While his charismatic and beautiful mother could use her influence to help Winston on his path it was him who would need to do the heavy lifting if he wanted to achieve his ultimate goal. Winston had long believed that he was destined for great things but with little money to help and a family background that was both help and hindrance there was really only one way he could gain a foothold and status in the establishment he desperately needed to be part of – he would need to gain a reputation. This he set out to do with dogged determination during his adventures in Afghanistan, Cuba and, most recently, South Africa where his daring escape from a Boer prison camp made him the darling of the Empire. When he managed to ‘cash in’ his reputation for a seat in parliament as a Conservative MP he knew he was, at last, on his way in the world. But he was still very young and very ambitious. He had little time for old fashioned ways and certainly had no intention to bide his time for years until he was recognised for advancement. After causing increasing ‘trouble’ to the party hierarchy he was firmly put in his place. This presented Winston with a choice, although hardly a difficult one, stay in the Conservative ranks and serve his time or cross the floor and enter the opposition Liberal party. Cross the floor he did – much to the consternation and everlasting enmity of the Tories. Progress within the ranks of the Liberals was much more to his liking and several cabinet posts followed. He was in his element but, being Winston, he managed to raise hackles and put enough noses out of joint in his own party that he was eventually ousted from his post in the Admiralty (following the Gallipoli disaster) and entered the political wilderness.

This filled a huge gap in my knowledge of Churchill’s early life. I’d read previously of his time in Afghanistan and knew something of his experiences in South Africa (book to follow) but wasn’t aware of any detail of his early political career. Running from his Canadian speaking tour in 1901 to his ultimate cabinet resignation in 1915 this generally interesting narrative explained a great deal the process Winston went through to make him into the iconic wartime leader he became after 1940. His experience as First Lord of the Admiralty in particular gave him an insight into the importance of the Royal navy in any upcoming conflict with Germany. Interestingly (and something I need to find more about) after he resigned in 1915 he joined his old regiment on the Western Front rising to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. Even more interestingly (at least from the alt-history perspective that often goes through my mind when reading history) was the number of time he could have been killed – not counting his military encounters before 1901. He insisted on learning to fly and only agreed to stop when his instructor was killed in an accident, as First Lord of the Admiralty he was under fire in Belgium during the early German advances and during his time at the Front in 1916 was almost hit by a large chunk of shrapnel. Just IMAGINE if he’s died before 1940! I hesitate to think what would have happened to Britain if he hadn’t have been available during our darkest hour. Overall this was a good read. The only real caveats I had was that it was obvious that the author was a fan and therefore the narrative wasn’t exactly balanced – and was obviously so. The other thing, which was by far my biggest criticism, was the amount of time spent dissecting Winston’s early love affairs prior to his marriage to Clementine Hozier in September 1908. That is certainly an aspect of Churchill’s life that I have zero interest in. Definitely worth a read if you want to find out more about Winston’s early career and what helped to make him the Churchill the world knows from WW2.