Erik Larson’s newest book” is “The Splendid and the Vile : A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz”. In it he tells a well known story in a most unusual and interesting way.

The Nazi bombing campaign of 1940-41, known as the Battle of Britain or the Blitz, is known (at least in broad outline) to most of us and largely coincided with Churchill’s first year as Prime Minister. Yet Larson’s retelling of this story deepens our understanding of this crucial year.

By focusing on Churchill’s family and colleagues as well as enemies and drawing from contemporary sources, he retells this important story as a work of non-fiction that reads like a novel.

Most of us know the ending but how Churchill got Britain through it and the descriptions of life during the Blitz result in a fascinating story told by the master of telling history in a very interesting way that reads like fiction.