Winston S Churchill has been the subject of many biographies, notably the multi-volume work by Sir Martin Gilbert that Gordon Brown gave to President Obama. His leadership in the Second World War has been chronicled by many, most persuasively by Andrew Roberts in his outstanding Masters and Commanders. 

Churchill’s fascination with war went back to his childhood in the late Victorian era. The pugnacious red-haired descendant of Marlborough liked to direct his cousins as if they were on a battlefield. Even as a child, Churchill exhibited the reckless streak that was to get him into tight