Link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0195161394/qid=1088631847/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_8_1/202-2044914-8531049

By Geoffrey Best

I wanted to read a book on Churchill after hearing a play on Radio 4 during the run-up to D-Day.

It was about the time when Britain "wobbled" and Churchill was being pressed to start peace talks with Hitler.

The book was pretty good. There's a lot of material to cover and the book wasn't as long as most biographies of him.

A few things particularly struck me:

• Churchill seems to have been involved in every major thing that happened between 1900 and 1950. He must have had an incredible insight into how the world worked then
• He had a very "practical" turn of mind - and seemed to be able to cut through bureaucratic red tape. He seemed unusually keen on doing a good job - which is very hard to hold onto when you work in a big institution like a government
• I liked the bit about the heated outdoor swimming pool at Chartwell, which was described as a "millionaire's" indulgence