
The Splendid and the Vile
A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz
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Narrated by:
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John Lee
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Erik Larson
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By:
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Erik Larson
About this listen
The number one New York Times best-selling author of The Devil in the White City and Dead Wake delivers a fresh and compelling portrait of Winston Churchill and London during the Blitz.
NAMED ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2020 BY The Washington Post • HuffPost • The Seattle Times • Lit Hub • The Week • PopSugar
On Winston Churchill’s first day as prime minister, Adolf Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away. For the next 12 months, Hitler would wage a relentless bombing campaign, killing 45,000 Britons. It was up to Churchill to hold his country together and persuade President Franklin Roosevelt that Britain was a worthy ally - and willing to fight to the end.
In The Splendid and the Vile, Erik Larson shows, in cinematic detail, how Churchill taught the British people "the art of being fearless." It is a story of political brinkmanship, but it’s also an intimate domestic drama, set against the backdrop of Churchill’s prime-ministerial country home, Chequers; his wartime retreat, Ditchley, where he and his entourage go when the moon is brightest and the bombing threat is highest; and, of course, 10 Downing Street in London.
Drawing on diaries, original archival documents, and once-secret intelligence reports - some released only recently - Larson provides a new lens on London’s darkest year through the day-to-day experience of Churchill and his family: his wife, Clementine; their youngest daughter, Mary, who chafes against her parents’ wartime protectiveness; their son, Randolph, and his beautiful, unhappy wife, Pamela; Pamela’s illicit lover, a dashing American emissary; and the advisers in Churchill’s "Secret Circle", to whom he turns in the hardest moments.
The Splendid and the Vile takes listeners out of today’s political dysfunction and back to a time of true leadership, when, in the face of unrelenting horror, Churchill’s eloquence, courage, and perseverance bound a country, and a family, together.
This audiobook includes a recording of Winston Churchill's 1941 Christmas Eve speech.
©2020 Erik Larson (P)2020 Random House AudioInterview: Erik Larson returns with an utterly gripping account of WWII-era family life and heroic leadership during one of history’s most anxious eras.
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Critic reviews
"What Larson brilliantly provides are the finer details of the effects on England as he focuses on the family and home of its dynamic, idiosyncratic, and indefatigable leader.... Larson's skill at integrating vast research and talent for capturing compelling human dramas culminate in an inspirational portrait of one of history’s finest, most fearless leaders." (Booklist, starred review)
"A captivating history of Churchill’s heroic year, with more than the usual emphasis on his intimates." (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)
"The kind of page-turner you always want in a history book but rarely get...Larson gives the reader a ‘you are there’ sense of the intensity of Churchill’s work with his team on life-and-death challenges - and solving them at a pace I found to be mind-blowing." (Bill Gates, GatesNotes)
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Story
At the dawn of the 20th century, a great confidence suffused America. Isaac Cline was one of the era's new men, a scientist who believed he knew all there was to know about the motion of clouds and the behavior of storms. The idea that a hurricane could damage the city of Galveston, Texas, where he was based, was to him preposterous, "an absurd delusion." It was 1900, a year when America felt bigger and stronger than ever before. Nothing in nature could hobble the gleaming city of Galveston, then a magical place that seemed destined to become the New York of the Gulf.
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Two versions on Audible
- By stephiemav42 on 03-10-21
By: Erik Larson
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The Devil in the White City
- Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
- By: Erik Larson
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 14 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Two men, each handsome and unusually adept at his chosen work, embodied an element of the great dynamic that characterized America’s rush toward the twentieth century. The architect was Daniel Hudson Burnham, the fair’s brilliant director of works and the builder of many of the country’s most important structures, including the Flatiron Building in New York and Union Station in Washington, D.C. The murderer was Henry H. Holmes, a young doctor who, in a malign parody of the White City, built his “World’s Fair Hotel” just west of the fairgrounds.
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A Rich Read!
- By D on 09-18-03
By: Erik Larson
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Lethal Passage
- The Story of a Gun
- By: Erik Larson
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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This devastating book illuminates America's gun culture - its manufacturers, dealers, buffs, and propagandists - but also offers concrete solutions to our national epidemic of death by firearm. It begins with an account of a crime that is by now almost commonplace: on December 16, 1988, 16-year-old Nicholas Elliot walked into his Virginia high school with a Cobray M-11/9 and several hundred rounds of ammunition tucked in his backpack. By day's end, he had killed one teacher and severely wounded another.
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great reasoned book
- By Claire on 04-26-20
By: Erik Larson
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No One Goes Alone
- A Novel
- By: Erik Larson
- Narrated by: Julian Rhind-Tutt, Erik Larson
- Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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From New York Times best-selling author Erik Larson comes his first venture into fiction, an otherworldly tale of intrigue and the impossible that marshals his trademark approach to nonfiction to create something new: a ghost story thoroughly grounded in history. Pioneering psychologist William James leads an expedition to a remote isle in search of answers after a family inexplicably vanishes. Was the cause rooted in the physical world...or were there forces more paranormal and sinister at work?
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Not a ghost story in my opinion.
- By Renee on 09-29-21
By: Erik Larson
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Hotel Angeline
- A Novel in 36 Voices
- By: Erik Larson, Jamie Ford, Deb Caletti, and others
- Narrated by: Pam Ward
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Thirty-six of the most interesting writers in the Pacific Northwest came together for a week-long marathon of writing live on stage. The result? Hotel Angeline, a truly inventive novel that surprises at every turn of the page. Something is amiss at the Hotel Angeline, a rickety former mortuary perched atop Capitol Hill in rain-soaked Seattle. Fourteen-year-old Alexis Austin is fixing the plumbing, the tea, and all the problems of the world, it seems, in her landlady mother’s absence.
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Too Many Writers!
- By Lisa on 08-25-13
By: Erik Larson, and others
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Mary Churchill’s War
- The Wartime Diaries of Churchill’s Youngest Daughter
- By: Mary Churchill, Emma Soames - editor, Erik Larson - introduction
- Narrated by: Beth Eyre, Emma Soames
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1939, seventeen-year-old Mary found herself in an extraordinary position at an extraordinary time: it was the outbreak of World War II and her father, Winston Churchill, had been appointed First Lord of the Admiralty; within months he would become prime minister. The young Mary Churchill was uniquely placed to observe this remarkable historical moment, and her diaries—most never published until now—provide an immediate view of the great events of the war, as well as intimate moments with her father. These diaries also capture what it was like to be a young woman during wartime.
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Love Mary Soames
- By Robert on 11-21-22
By: Mary Churchill, and others
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Churchill
- Walking with Destiny
- By: Andrew Roberts
- Narrated by: Stephen Thorne
- Length: 50 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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When we seek an example of great leaders with unalloyed courage, the person who comes to mind is Winston Churchill: the iconic, visionary war leader immune from the consensus of the day, who stood firmly for his beliefs when everyone doubted him. But how did young Winston become Churchill? What gave him the strength to take on the superior force of Nazi Germany when bombs rained on London and so many others had caved? In this landmark biography of Winston Churchill based on extensive new material, the true genius of the man, statesman, and leader can finally be fully understood.
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Superb Biography
- By Jean on 03-03-19
By: Andrew Roberts
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Summary, Analysis, and Review of Erik Larson's The Splendid and the Vile
- A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz
- By: Start Publishing Notes
- Narrated by: Michael Gilboe
- Length: 37 mins
- Unabridged
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This is a summary, analysis, and review of The Splendid and the Vile and not the original book. With a firm grasp of the British struggle under German aggression, Larson crafts a story of epic proportions, taking the listener on a journey of novel insight and unexpected emotion. It’s not about Churchill so much as his preservation of all that Britain valued as a civilization at the height of the Second World War. This book is intended as a companion to, not a replacement for, The Splendid and the Vile.
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Proofreading needed
- By Cathy Brown on 10-21-21
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Eiger Dreams
- By: Jon Krakauer
- Narrated by: Jon Krakauer
- Length: 5 hrs and 40 mins
- Abridged
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In this collection of his finest work from such magazines as Outside and Smithsonian, Krakauer explores the subject from the unique and memorable perspective of one who has himself battled peaks like K2, Denali, Everest, and, of course, Eiger.
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Great book. Where Krakauer got his start...
- By Steve Anderson on 01-03-05
By: Jon Krakauer
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The Spy and the Traitor
- The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War
- By: Ben Macintyre
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 13 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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If anyone could be considered a Russian counterpart to the infamous British double-agent Kim Philby, it was Oleg Gordievsky. The son of two KGB agents and the product of the best Soviet institutions, the savvy, sophisticated Gordievsky grew to see his nation's communism as both criminal and philistine. He took his first posting for Russian intelligence in 1968 and eventually became the Soviet Union's top man in London, but from 1973 on he was secretly working for MI6.
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John Lee is GREAT!
- By David on 09-21-18
By: Ben Macintyre
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Troublesome Young Men
- The Rebels Who Brought Churchill to Power and Helped Save England
- By: Lynne Olson
- Narrated by: Dennis Kleinman
- Length: 14 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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On May 7, 1940, the House of Commons began perhaps the most crucial debate in British parliamentary history. On its outcome hung the future of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's government and also of Britain - indeed, perhaps, the world. Troublesome Young Men is Lynne Olson's fascinating account of how a small group of rebellious Tory MPs defied the Chamberlain government's defeatist policies that aimed to appease Europe's tyrants and eventually forced the prime minister's resignation.
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Spectacular Narrative History Book
- By Nostromo on 11-30-18
By: Lynne Olson
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The Wide Wide Sea
- Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook
- By: Hampton Sides
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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On July 12th, 1776, Captain James Cook, already lionized as the greatest explorer in British history, set off on his third voyage in his ship the HMS Resolution. Two-and-a-half years later, on a beach on the island of Hawaii, Cook was killed in a conflict with native Hawaiians. How did Cook, who was unique among captains for his respect for Indigenous peoples and cultures, come to that fatal moment? Hampton Sides’ bravura account of Cook’s last journey both wrestles with Cook’s legacy and provides a thrilling narrative of the titanic efforts and continual danger that characterized exploration.
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Detailed story of third voyage
- By Sammi on 04-18-24
By: Hampton Sides
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The Wager
- A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder
- By: David Grann
- Narrated by: Dion Graham, David Grann
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty’s Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as “the prize of all the oceans,” it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia.
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Gasping for Air
- By Jean Engle on 04-19-23
By: David Grann
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The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel
- Genius, Power, and Deception on the Eve of World War I
- By: Douglas Brunt
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 12 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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September 29, 1913: the steamship Dresden is halfway between Belgium and England. On board is one of the most famous men in the world, Rudolf Diesel, whose new internal combustion engine is on the verge of revolutionizing global industry forever. But Diesel never arrives at his destination. He vanishes during the night and headlines around the world wonder if it was an accident, suicide, or murder.
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Just a girl and an audio book.
- By Lori Rhodes on 09-26-23
By: Douglas Brunt
What listeners say about The Splendid and the Vile
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- Mark Edens
- 03-03-20
Wow. An inside view of The Battle of Britain.
This is an inside view of Churchill and the Battle of Britain. A fine example of a personally imperfect person being the perfect person for the task at hand. There is always so much more to history than we are lead to believe.
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23 people found this helpful
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- Austin
- 03-07-20
Amazing book Larsons best!!!
This was one of the best books that I’ve ever read or listen to if you enjoy history or if you’re even mildly curious you definitely need to read this book. The amount of research and backstory that it must have taken to accomplish this amazing feat is incredible. The only thing that would make it better is if I had a signed copy Place on the mantle please.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Victorine
- 03-10-20
Erik Larson’s triumph of a book!!!
I have read every book Erik Larson has written. I have waited with baited breath for every upcoming book from Erik Larson. I have reread every book Erik Larson has written including this one and will again.
There really isn't much more one can say about Erik Larson. EXCEPT, I have read too many to count books on Churchill and was skeptical this political giant, could appear anew, with precision from Larson we are accustomed to yet it is a marvel! I am speechless.
I truly could not stop listening and restarted the book the moment it had completed. When I read a book from Erik Larson my life is forever enriched. Gallop with your fingers to the audible app and download this book.
Experience the richness of history in a way that only Larson can deliver, on Churchill, who we all know. A life viewed from every angle is still a surprise.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Jayne
- 03-06-20
The Best of Churchill
This book reads like a novel about one of the greatest men on earth. Winston Churchill was an entertaining character during a time when men were men. He was fearless and determined and somehow managed everything with a sense of humor. I have read many books about him - this was one of the best. Highly recommend.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Rodney
- 03-15-20
History presented well
While it reads like a well written and well performed novel, it is history that is interesting and entertaining. Real people with strengths and flaws performing at a time of international crisis. Examples of leadership and politics with lessons for present day.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Laura K
- 08-01-20
My favorite Larson book yet
I’ve enjoyed all of Erik Larson’s books and this is his best. I couldn’t put it down.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Steve
- 04-09-20
Excellent!!!
A superb telling of Churchill’s story for a smaller period of time and in a shorter version that still manages to shed an appropriate amount of light on the man during a particularly difficult time in history. Narration was very well done. John Lee’s Churchill voice was very good without being over the top. It brought a good deal of veritas to the production.
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- Theresa
- 05-10-20
Marvelous- even for those who think they know Churchill, FDR and Battle of Britain
Superbly written, interesting story, and a great listen. I can’t imagine why anyone would be unhappy with this selection.
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- Anonymous User
- 08-31-20
Fascinating
A fascinating book for those who were never history majors and love a great story, especially when it’s true! I could do with less of the voice impressions of various characters by the narrator, but still good listening.
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- Ellie Carruth
- 03-27-20
What an inspiring story!
Where is the wisdom of Sir Winston when we need him? In these pages of the true tale of darkness , overcome by light. Not an easy way, mind you, never easy. Inspiring read.
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