Over 400 readers have asked when we will see the third and final volume of William Manchester’s Churchill biography, The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Defender of the Realm 1940-1965. Answer: this year.
Mr. Reid kindly asked me to proof the manuscript for Volume III (as did Mr. Manchester for Volume II). On April 11th I finished marking up the text, and have reported back to the author. According to the publishers, Little Brown, both the book and the Kindle edition will be published in November 2012.
This will be good news to the many Manchester fans who have waited for years: and I can promise you that Paul Reid’s volume is written in the Manchester style, as dramatic and gripping as the first two volumes. Read comments below for more details.
Finest Hour has published two powerful excerpts from Defender of the Realm. Back issues are available through The Churchill Centre in Chicago (888-WSC-1874). These articles and a tribute to Manchester are also posted on the Centre’s website. For the following .pdfs, visit the Finest Hour page and select the issue you wish to download:
Excerpt 1: “The Fall of France” (Finest Hour 109, Winter 2000-01)
Excerpt 2: “Undaunted by Odds: the Battle of Britain” (Finest Hour 124, Autumn 2004)
William Manchester Obituary (Finest Hour 123, Summer 2004).
Note: Twice now individuals have posted false comments here, including one attributed to author Paul Reid, who did not post that comment. I will refer any questions he may be able to answer to Mr. Reid. His replies will ONLY be found under my name, in the blue-shaded comments below. All other comments attributed to Paul Reid will be deleted.
{ 60 comments… read them below or add one }
Having just completed reading the first two volumes of Manchester”s
The Last Lion in just over a week, I too was keen to see what the score was for the third volume. Even if it means waiting another year or so, it will be so worthwhile. Manchester wrote like an angel!
A friend gave me the first two volumes of The Last Lion and I just finished them. What an amazing story of an amazing man. It is almost as if Churchhill’s entire life was designed to deliver him as the only world leader who could stand up to Hitler. I read on Wikipedia that William Manchester passed away. So I thought this work would remain unfinished. I’m delighted to discover that he appointed another writer to deliver the final volume and spent time directing him on how he wanted it written. Looking forward to its release in 2011.
Glad to hear there may be a light at the end of the tunnel with regard to the third volume of The Last Lion. I’ve been waiting with bated breath for its completion.
Please keep us apprised of progress towards publication. I am greatly looking forward to this. I am currently reading Goodbye Darkness and enjoying it, but having read the two published excerpts has whetted my hunger for this final volume!
I too am thirsting for Vol 3. I hope the understanding Manchester imparted to the first two volumes survives.
Whenever I feel a bit low about my life I reread sections of Volume Two. The sense of hope and inspiration I get amazes me. It also surprises me how many speeches from the 1930′s apply to our world in 2010.
I am absolutely thrilled to hear that the third volume will be published. I have just finished the second volume and have been eagerly watching for the next book to appear.
I have a recommendation for some good reading in the meantime: Barbara Leaming’s “Churchill Defiant: Fighting On 1945-1955.” Its unique personal dimension places her book well above the long array of potboilers—making it the most important survey of Churchill’s last active decade since Anthony Seldon’s “Churchill’s Indian Summer” thirty years ago.
How will the announcement be made as to the publishing of the third volume, please? I am so looking forward to reading it. Thank-you.
I’m sure the release will be accompanied by a wave of publicity that nobody will be able to miss. The key parts of it I have already read, on World War II, are “vintage Manchester.”
I really appreciate the updates. 2012 can’t come soon enough!
While checking on the status of Vol III I noticed a book on Ted Kennedy titled “Last Lion”. If that’s legal it certainly is a reach, to say the least.
I have been hoping for such a book since 1988.
Churchill was one of more noble sons of the West and may well be the main reason that this post is not written in German.
Thank you for your updates about “Last Lion” Vol III. I am almost done with Vol I and have II on deck. Are there any other Churchill books you would recommend covering the years of World War II as we wait for Vol III?
The book to start with is Churchill’s six-volume memoir, The Second World War. Next, try one of Geoffrey Best’s books, Churchill at War or Churchill: A Study in Greatness. I also agree with the the late John Ramsden, who wrote that Paul Addison’s Churchill: The Unexpected Hero is quite the best “brief life” in print today. All these books are “fair and balanced,” and not given to repeating myths or old chestnuts.
I’m glad Mr. Reid is giving some space to the postwar years. I’ve enjoyed Barbara Leaming’s Churchill Defiant, but the postwar years are the era about which I know the least—by far. As painful as this wait is becoming, I would rather wait and get the full story than get a partial story tomorrow.
Is Gilbert’s book, “Winston S. Churchill: Never Despair, 1945-1965″ at Amazon.com. What does “official” mean in this context? Churchill’s ownThe Second World War, for example, is great both as history and literature, but comparing it with other sources, such as Manchester, one gets the impression that the truth is often heavily censored.
Gilbert’s volume 8 “Never Despair” 1945-1965 is out of print but available from aftermarket sellers via Amazon at this link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0773721878/?tag=richmlang-20. Although Gilbert’s work is called the “official biography,” Gilbert has never been told what or what not to include, nor has the Churchill family ever attempted to influence his writing. Churchill’s own war memoirs were indeed censored, not the least by Churchill himself, who could not, for example, reveal the secrets of Bletchley Park’s decryption of the German “Enigma” code at the time he wrote, it being an Official Secret until years later. By the time Manchester wrote, much more was available—and still more is available today. Gilbert’s one-volume biography, Churchill: A Life, contains much material not available when he and Randolph Churchill wrote the original eight volumes.
Can’t wait for Vol III! I’m a young guy, read Vol II when I was about 24. Read Vol I after that…and have been eagerly awaiting Vol III for a couple of years now. I’ve since read a couple of other Churchill biographies, including the one by Virginia Cowles. Not bad, but it doesn’t compare to the depth that Manchester packs in. I’ve never read so much detail that is also so exciting.
Wow, a couple of whingers on here complaining about the time the book has taken to be completed (and still counting, though it seems not for much longer). Cannot believe anyone would want such an important publication rushed. I for one am happy if it takes upwards of 6 or 7 years to complete (as it will almost be when it finally comes out) as long as it is done right and in the spirit which Manchester intended. Paul Reid sounds like he is on top of it and I am sure Manchester knew what he was doing when asking him to take up the mantle.
It’s interesting to note that the second Manchester Churchill volume was just voted one of the top 100 non-fiction books ever written by Time magazine.
Amazing – the Manchester (soon to be) trilogy on WSC has captivated me completely. I am currently slogging my way through “Visions of Glory” and have ordered a copy of the second volume, hopefully to arrive before I finish this one. I didn’t occur to me that the third volume had never been completed until I began searching for a source for the third volume. Reading the blogs on the imminent release of that volume has me drooling already. Manchester’s style is at once frustrating and masterful in its detail and has captured the life and times of Churchill like no other I have encountered. His gritty and revealng description of the “The Great War” invokes nothing but revulsion for the role of most politicians and generals in the conduct of war. We only learn of the heroes who were disregarded after the damage has been done and we haven’t learned it yet.
I have been waiting for the third volume, mind you, just so I can go on dreaming of how I would create a lifestyle that allows me to bathe until noon, with a glass of scotch (only one), read all the newspapers and mail and then face the world. Please Mr Reid, make haste!
Not as much fun as you think. That glass was mainly water: “scotch-flavored mouthwash,” as a staffer put it. He didn’t bathe all morning. He bathed around 11 after waking at 8am, breakfasting and working in bed, reading the papers (all of them, including the Daily Worker), and his mail. Then he went down to lunch, held forth extensively to guests, rambled around Chartwell, returned to his room, worked until around 6pm, bathed again, worked again, held dinner around 8-9 and watched a film afterward. Then he summoned a secretary and worked until as late as 3AM. (I have actually tried this, but my wife wouldn’t put up with it, because it really takes a staff of about eleven.)
I am thoroughly enjoying the updates, and am curious about your opinion of what you have read so far. How does “Defender of the Realm” match up to the other two volumes so far? Does Paul Reid do a good job of capturing Manchester’s voice? Many thanks.
Will, you will not be disappointed.
I used seven years to savor every delicious page of volumes first and second. I will gladly wait seven years to have the pleasure of volume three. I often felt that by the books I was a frequent dinner companion of Mr. Churchill.
just finished vol 2 and 2012 cannot come soon enough!
Just wanted to chime in with my thanks to Richard for keeping us apprised. I am heartened to hear that the progress continues and that someone of Richard’s expertise believes our patience will be rewarded. I see that Martin Gilbert has a couple of volumes scheduled for 2012. The first is called “Winston Churchill – The Wilderness Years: Speaking out Against Hitler in the Prelude to War” and the second is “Churchill: The Power of Words” Anything you can share about these?
“Churchill: The Power of Words” (May 2012) contains Sir Martin’s 100 favorite selections of readings from Churchill’s works, something he has never given us before. For more details see: http://bit.ly/slZJBu.
“Wilderness Years” (February 2012) is a reprint of Sir Martin’s short (240 pp) book by the same title first published n 1982, at the time of the “Wilderness Years” TV documentary.
In reading “The Last Lion” volume III’s account of 1942–the nadir of the war for the Angl0-Americans. I can report that the writing is typically Manchesterian, the unique style which captivates so many readers. I’m sure Paul Reid will not mind this brief example, describing Rommel before his break-out against Tobruk in mid-1942:
“He had retreated before Auchinleck, but more to the point, he had escaped, and rearmed. The peril had shifted to ‘The Auk’, although the danger was belied by the quietude that had settled over the desert, where the armies dug in and faced each other just beyond field artillery range. Nights were cool. Intermittent rain showers brought forth blooms to scarious shrubs while small desert flowers scrabbled from beneath the cracked sand and stones as sunshine as weak as chamomile tea threw indeterminate shadows across the sands.”
Thanks for sharing that Richard! The Gilbert books sound like something I’d really enjoy as well. I’ve never read any of his works so they sound like good volumes to “break in” to his work in smaller bites.
Would anyone be interested in giving a clear (1-2 line) summary of Gilber vs Manchester writing styles. It has been a long time since I have read them and I have just finished listening to Roy Jenkins latest. I may just have to go and buy them and start over, but would not mind some guidance about where to start. I guess I read them as novels instead of as literature and enjoyed them all without a critical eye as it were.
Well, in five lines!… Manchester was a literary stylist, master of rolling, sonorous prose, if occasionally lax with facts. Gilbert offers pure history: clinical, chronological, precise, leaving (in Churchill’s phrase) “no wire unpulled, no stone unturned, no cutlet uncooked.” For a full discussion see http://richardlangworth.com/biographers
Richard, Thanks much for the updates. My dad who was a WWII Marine in the PTO, recommended Manchester’s Goodbye Darkness as the most realistic description of his experiences and feelings. As I have completed both volumes of The Last Lion and am currently in the middle of Alone 1932-1940 again, I very much appreciate your comments on Paul Reid and Defender of the Realm, and the progress toward publication. Hopefully the release will be accompanied by the way of publicity you mentioned as it will be most deserving, and I very much look forward to that day.
Thanks for the kind words. Incidentally, William Manchester told me “Goodbye Darkness” was his favorite among his many books and, he thought, his best.
One development: I noticed that Amazon has put Defender of the Realm on their site for pre-order as being available on 11.01.12.
There seems to be some conusion, however, with earlier volumes (if you click on the hardcover as opposed to the Kindle edition it takes you to Vol 2 so perhaps its just a Kindle version of Vol 2?) so please take this with a grain of salt.
Have read all Manchester’s books. I was disheartened when he died, as I was impatiently waiting for Volume Three. I was under the impression that it died with him. On discovering today that his research and notes did not go to waste, I now eagerly await Volume Three. It will bring me joy and satisfaction in my old age to read of the prime times and last days of one of my life-long ikons, Winston Churchill, and how he was a key element during World War Two. William Manchester was a superb researcher and writer.
Love your site and thanks so much for contributing to Vol III of the Last Lion. Now to my question. I’m having a bit of an argument with a fellow Churchillian. He thinks that Mr. Manchester was being cheeky, in a dry English sort of way (despite being American), and I think he somehow meant exactly what he said when he wrote in Vol. II:
“However, the legend that he is a heavy drinker is quite untrue. Churchill is a sensible if unorthodox drinker. There is always some alcohol in his bloodstream and it reaches its peak in the evening after he has had two or three scotches, several glasses of champagne, at least two brandies, and a highball.”
Was Mr. Manchester trying to be funny, or did he really think that 9 drinks is not heavy drinking? Thanks much.
Dear Mr. Langworth: Please thank Mr. Reid for his previous work and for his efforts on Volume III. I read the first two as they came out and have been looking forward to Volume III quite a time. I am sure I will be pleased and appreciative. Thank you for this website. Sincerely, TMC
Andy Klein: About Churchill’s drinking, see http://richardlangworth.com/alcohol
Last time I saw Paul was at Charlston for a Churchill gathering in March of 2011. At that time he had no idea when the book would be done. Quite frankly I know his writing style and it should be a good match to the other two books. However like the others I’m having a tough time waiting.
Dear Mr. Langworth, I’m searching the web as I do every so often for news about the release of Vol. III. Thanks for this website, for some reason I’ve missed it before! Thank you for your work and please add my encouragement to Mr. Reid. We will wait as long as we need to, and like our hero, we will not give in (not up!) I do miss Mr. Manchester and his gift for writing.
Adding my comment of thanks for keeping us appraised on the new book. I am re-listening to the first 2 in audio format in preparation for the 3rd and check here every 6 months or so to see the progress. I don’t know how quickly books published make it to audio, I’m guessing I won’t be able to wait.
I was a neighbor of Robert Manchester,an attorney, who was William’s much younger brother. I got to know William when he came to visit his brother and came to appreciate his intellect and writing ability. I have read all of his books except for his early fiction work. I,too, have been eagerly awaiting vol. 3. Robert was killed in an auto accident two years ago . Back in the 90′s I would occasional ask Robert the status of the third vol. and he would tell me “Bill is working hard on it but is such a perfectionist that he is not satisfied and keeps rewriting portions.” Finally,William’s doctor advised him to take leave from writing for a while which he did and apparently never could bring himself to complete the work.
April 9th: Thanks to all for the kind words. I am completing my read of “Defender of the Realm 1940-1965″ and I can promise that the wait will be worthwhile. With luck, maybe the end of 2012. Visitors here will be first to know.
Tragic about his brother. They were both taken from us too soon.
About Churchill’s drinking, see also “Forty Ways to look at Winston Churchill” by Gretchen Rubin, Chapter 21, page 136. Looking forward to V-III. Thanks for the progress reports.
Rubin makes at least five mistakes. His “whisky and soda” was a layer of scotch in a tumbler full of soda. His daughter gave me a sample of this “Papa Cocktail.” It scarcely qualifies as alcoholic. He did not use ice. He was not “drunk half of his time.” He did not drink 96 bottles of champagne in two weeks. Brooke’s diaries were written out of frustration when he was exhausted. Rubin’s arguments against his being an alcoholic are weak. I like Prof. Warren Kimball’s suggestion that he was “alcohol-dependent–no alcoholic could drink that much!” He functioned best with some of it inside him, but diluted it with food and water. See also:
http://richardlangworth.com/alcohol
Then the Amazon/Kindle sale is correct ?
Kindle edition is set for sale on 11/1/2012.
James Powers–correct, the Kindle edition is planned for Nov 1st.
Would you happen to know whether the first two volumes will also be released for the Kindle?
According to Amazon, it clocks in at 1729 pages. Can this be right? I hope it’s true (the more Manchester the better), but I can’t imagine the physical proportions of the book if it’s anything like my copy of the first two volumes.
Two points: (1) Mr. Langworth’s reply to Scott, the latter seeking to emulate Churchill’s supposedly “leisurely” life style, spot-on: Churchill extended “sleep overs” with the Roosevelt’s at the White House, including the famous Christmas visit of 1941, always left the White House staff exhausted, what with his working the “late shift” typically to 2 or 3 a.m. (2), with Europe in 1940 sinking, in Churchill’s chillingly apt phrase from his June 18th “Finest Hour” speech, “into the abyss of a New Dark Age”, it seems only someone with roots tapped deep into a prior Victorian/Edwardian age could react with a clarity of vision, strength of purpose, and will to carry on, regardless. There would be no negotiating with Hitler. Churchill then, by not losing the war in May of 1940, gave the Allies the opportunity to win. No author captures this reality better in my estimation than a fellow reactionary, John Lukacs. The Hungarian-born, English-educated, and American historian Lukacs develops this theme in several of his works, including The Duel (1991), Five Days in London (1999), and most recently Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat (2008). Any self-professed Anglophile would be well-served by reading (and enjoying) Lukacs, while awaiting the final installment of the Manchester trilogy.
Replies to recent comments:
Kindle Vols 1&2: This decision isn’t made yet. My guess is that they will try a 3-volume set after Vol 3 has run its course, and that will be the time when we see Kindle versions of the earlier volumes. The jacket of “Defender” is not yet pictured but it is very handsome and much nicer than the insipid jackets of Vols 1&2.
The Amazon listing is erroneous in certain particulars. The book will be about 900 pages, not 1729. The list price of the hardback will be $40, and the Kindle $19.99–the Amazon prices may change.
John Lukacs’ “Five Days in London” is definitely worth reading; it perfectly captures the essence and emotion of that time.
Is there a release date for the hardback?
I’ve heard various dates in November.
Thanks a lot. I have a Nook, but this one I want to read in hardback, to match the first two volumes. It’s been a long wait. Recently I read Churchill in America and Franklin and Winston, both excellent.
Do you know if The Last Lion III will be published separately in England as the first two volumes were?
I’m sure the book will be published in Britain, like the first two volumes. The dustwrapper has been redesigned and will not be uniform, however.
I have probably read the first two volumes at least 6 times. They never get old. Mr Manchester is my favorite author. Been waiting years for the third volume. Thank you to all involved.
A preview of the US dustjacket is on Amazon…http://www.amazon.com/The-Last-Lion-Churchill-1940-1965/dp/0316547700/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pdT2_nS?ie=UTF8&coliid=I32IKLIN7IZQ7N&colid=36C4XCHGTDHTF
Very handsome!
As a lover of non fiction, I thought The Last Lion, volumes I and II were two of the finest books I ever read. When I saw that William Manchester was ailing and unable to finish the trilogy, I was deeply disappointed . Now I am thrilled to know it will finally be completed. I can hardly wait, so I guess I will have to reread the first two again before November.