Young Titan: The Making of Winston Churchill - Tapa dura

For history buffs, Winston Churchill is the gift that keeps on giving, and in Young Titan Michael Shelden has given us the gift of Churchill's fascinating formative years. It's all here-the boy wonder, adventurer, romantic, orator, and eloquent man in the arena. I didn't want it to end. --Tom Brokaw, author of "The Greatest Generation"

Passion was never merely a by-product of [Churchill s] political beliefs, though it certainly influenced them. As the book Young Titan reveals, passion was at the core of his being from the very beginning - The Express

Shelden s welcome account of the early years of Churchill s career - The Independent

An easy and entertaining read, with some wonderful characters and plenty of the bon mots we have grown to expect from Churchill - The Guardian

Shelden s decision to concentrate on such a brief period in Churchill s life gives more room to breathe to important friendships and events ... surprisingly revealing --The Sunday Telegraph

The first biography focused on Winston Churchill’s early career: a never-before-told account of his ambitious romantic pursuits, his outmaneuvering of rival political giants, and the fatal mistakes that would sideline him for years.

In modern memory, Winston Churchill remains the man with the cigar and the equanimity among the ruins. Few can remember that at the age of 40, he was considered washed up, his best days behind him. In Young Titan, historian Michael Shelden has produced the first biography focused on Churchill’s early career, the years between 1901 and 1915 that both nearly undid him but also forged the character that would later triumph in the Second World War.

Between his rise and his fall, Churchill built a modern navy, experimented with radical social reforms, survived various threats on his life, made powerful enemies and a few good friends, annoyed and delighted two British monarchs, became a husband and father, took the measure of the German military machine, authorized executions of notorious murderers, and faced deadly artillery barrages on the Western front. Along the way, he learned how to outwit more experienced rivals, how to overcome bureaucratic obstacles, how to question the assumptions of his upbringing, how to be patient and avoid overconfidence, and how to value loyalty.

He also learned how to fall in love. Shelden gives us a portrait of Churchill as the dashing young suitor who pursued three great beauties of British society with his witty repartee, political f lair, and poetic letters. In one of many never-before-told episodes, Churchill is seen racing to a Scottish castle to prepare the heartbroken daughter of the prime minister for his impending marriage.

This was a time of high drama, intrigue, personal courage, and grave miscalculations. But as Shelden shows in this fresh and revealing biography, Churchill’s later success was predicated on his struggles to redeem the promise of his youth.