Never despair : Winston S. Churchill, 1945-1965 /

With this eighth volume, Gilbert completes a magnificent enterprise: the life of Winston Churchill (v.1-2: CH, Mar '68, v.4: CH, Jan '76; v.7: CH, Apr '87). In a way, the project has come full circle as, toward the end of this volume, the plan is made for Winston's son Randolph to write the life, as Winston had written his father's, Lord Randolph's. The first two volumes were finished before Randolph died; Gilbert has brought the story to conclusion, with, presumably, some companion volumes of documents to come. Volume 8 describes the defeat of Churchill's party in 1945, and the second ministry of 1951-55 when, despite his stroke in June 1953, Churchill put off his resignation until April 1955. He then witnessed his prediction coming true, i.e., that Eden would not be able to manage as his successor. Barely more than 300 pages cover Churchill's last ten years marked by travel and physical decline. This is an intelligent, indispensable, almost day-to-day account of one of the most important men who ever lived. The story is told well; the research and the accomplishment are prodigious. But it is told exclusively (as perhaps is appropriate) from Churchill's point of view with no judgments passed. The policy of the first volume, that Churchill will be his own biographer, is adhered to. More interpretive works, perhaps by Gilbert himself, will follow, greatly helped by the richness of the official biography. All libraries. -P. Stansky, Stanford University

The eighth and final volume in a decades-long publishing project, the official biography of the great British prime minister. Following the seventh installment, Road to Victory [BKL Ja 15 87], which covered the years 1941 to 1945, this concluding volume begins with Churchill at the height of his career, presiding over the victory over Germany. Soon, though, he is turned out as prime minister, only to later win his second tenure in the office, from 1951 to 1955, and then to spend his final decade as a world-respected elder statesman. As in all previous volumes, this one continues to impress, with its infinite detail marshaled into a lively, stimulating biographical statement worthy of its complicated, consequential subject. The complete set would grace any worthwhile history collection. Index. BH.