The Splendid and the Vile; A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson

Crown 608 pp.

By Paul Markowitz

The Splendid and the Vile is not a biography of Churchill, nor is it a history of the Blitz — it is a close look into the major historical characters of the crucial period from May 10, 1940 to May 10, 1941.  Instead of offering a survey of that critical moment in history, Erik Larson provides an intimate look that succeeds admirably in bringing Churchill and his family members to life.  Like his past works, such as Devil in the White City and Dead Wake, The Splendid and the Vile reads like fiction. But Larson’s meticulous footnotes show the depth of his research and reassure the reader that his story is very much rooted in fact. 

This saga begins on May 10th 1941, the day Churchill was invited to Buckingham Palace by the King and asked to form a new government, after the debacle of Neville Chamberlain’s rule.  Churchill was the choice of the average British citizen, but not so much of British political and social luminaries.  He was often difficult, moody, tempestuous, and outspoken.  He was sixty-seven, overweight, and had a propensity to drink and smoke.  He was also heavily in debt.

Despite Churchill’s many eccentricities, he was very comfortable in his own skin.  He would often work in his bath with aides coming and going as he smoked his ever-present cigars and drank his favorite brandy.  When FDR saw him in his bath naked, Churchill exclaimed, “As you can see I have nothing to hide.”

Much of The Splendid and the Vile deals with Churchill’s singularly important strategic endeavor of getting the United States into the war against Germany.  It would take him the better part a year to coax the U.S. into the Lend-Lease Program, through which the U.S. would lend war supplies to Britain for no money upfront. But it took the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor for the US to actually join the war.

The book focuses on the first critical events of Churchill’s government — the largely successful evacuations of the British army from Dunkirk, and England surviving the Blitzkrieg while dropping bombs on Germany.  The RAF’s brave and strikingly successful battle against the German air force is another critical part of the story.  Throughout this period, Churchill’s personal courage and ability to relate to the average British citizen were crucial to Britain’s ability to withstand the horrors of the Blitz.

One thing that sets The Splendid and the Vile apart from previous histories of the era is the serious attention Larson gives to other prominent members of the Churchill retinue, notably his immediate family members.  This gives the book a human element that adds significantly to our appreciation of the period. Larson presents the events through the eyes of Churchill but also his wife, Clementine; their youngest daughter Mary, who wishes to be engaged to an older man against her parent’s wishes; their son, Randolph, a heavy gambler and drinker and a questionable husband; Pamela, Randolph’s unhappy wife; Averill Harriman, an important American emissary who would begin an illicit affair with Pamela; John Colville, his love-struck private secretary who greatly desires to join the RAF; and Lord Beaverbrook, the newspaper baron who successfully runs the critical Department of Aircraft Production for the first year of Churchill’s leadership while submitting his resignation some fourteen times.

Larson lavishes far less attention on the Germans, but he tells us enough.  We see Hitler at critical moments as he pushes for an attack on Russia, over the opposition of almost all of his military leaders; Hermann Goring, the head of the Luftwaffe, as he strategizes against British resistance; and Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s number three who without approval flies a plane to Scotland to discuss with the British an end to the war.

The Splendid and the Vile is ultimately a refreshing reminder of immensely important events in the not too distant past.   At a time when political and personal wisdom and courage are greatly needed but in short supply, it is exhilarating to see an era when they were not only apparent, but critical to the success of a country, if not a civilization, in peril.