In Search of Churchill

Description

Martin Gilbert began work on Winston Churchill's biography, initially as Randolph Churchill's assistant, in 1962 on his 26th birthday. By 1992 he had himself written six of the total eight volumes and edited ten documentary volumes of a projected 15. This book is the story of Gilbert's 30-year quest for his subject. He reveals the extent of his historical labour, and shares with the reader some of the great moments in his pursuit. It is also the story of those who have helped Gilbert along his way, as they had earlier helped Churchill on his. Secretaries, assistants, diarists, correspondents, soldiers, politicians, civil servants, the eminent and the humble - all of them had tales to tell, many of them published for the first time. Martin Gilbert is the author of "The Holocaust".

Sir Martin Gilbert is one of Britain's most distinguished historians. He was born in London in 1936, educated at Highgate School and spent two years in the army as a National Serviceman. He studied history at Magdalen College, Oxford, and, after two years of graduate work at St Antony's College, Oxford was elected a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, and also became a research assistant to Randolph Churchill. After Randolph Churchill's death in 1968, Martin Gilbert succeeded him as the official biographer of Sir Winston Churchill, writing six of the eight volumes and editing eleven volumes of Churchill documents. His other books include The Holocaust: the Jewish Tragedy, Atlas of the Holocaust, Auschwitz and the Allies, First World War, Second World War, D-Day, The Day the War Ended and a three-volume History of the Twentieth Century. Most recently, he has written Kristallnacht for the Making History series. Martin Gilbert was knighted in 1995. He lives in London.