May 8, 2015

Spring Issue of Finest Hour Commemorates End of War in Europe

The spring issue of The Churchill Centre’s quarterly journal Finest Hour has now been published. In it we mark seventy years since the end of the Second World War in Europe with examinations of Churchill’s management of his civilian and military responsibilities as Prime Minister and Minister of Defence. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has provided a letter of introduction to set the tone. In addition to our features, we have reviews of fifteen new books that deal with Churchill and Churchill-related subjects including two novels.

Jonathan Schneer, author of the new book Ministers at War (reviewed in this issue), shows us how Churchill handled his Cabinet and kept this “team of rivals” together. Anne Henderson provides a similar view of another prime minister, Robert Menzies, and how the Australian leader had to maneuver between his own government and Churchill’s in London.

On the military side Raymond Callahan explains how Churchill managed the Empire’s armies, while Paul Courtenay provides a quick guide to the honours the leaders of these forces received. Mark Stoler examines the most important military relationship Churchill had with an officer over whom he had no control, General George C. Marshall. Paul Taylor compares Churchill with the mercurial General George S. Patton.

We also pay our final tribute to “Historian of the Century” Sir Martin Gilbert, who passed away on February 3rd and was fittingly buried in the British section of the Beit Shemesh Cemetery in Israel just west of Jerusalem. As our autumn issue contained numerous tributes to Sir Martin that his wife Esther was able to share with him before he passed away, we have given the last word to the man himself and publish his own account of his career as the Official Biographer of Sir Winston.

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