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'The relaxed, lucid prose is accessible
to anyone with an interest in the topic.'
Clemency Burton Hill,
The Observer
‘This book is as fine an example of
the first-class essay as you could hope to read. It is ingenious.
It is witty. It compares and contrasts. Above all, it never
bores.’
Niall Ferguson, BBC
History Magazine
‘His
book is timely and a triumph. … Tony Blair could do
worse than read Andrew Roberts’s book to remind himself
of what it takes to achieve historical greatness.’
Michael
Burleigh, The Evening Standard
‘ This book … contains a rich selection of anecdotes
about both men that will inform and entertain. It succeeds,
above all, in pulling together strands of these two titanic
figures in a way that ought to enlighten yet further even
the most battle-hardened reader of books on the bloodiest
war in history.’
Simon
Heffer, Country Life
‘ Roberts has accepted the challenge on the back of
his forthcoming television series exploring the qualities
of leadership that brought the two men face to face across
the English Channel in 1940. The result is lively, thought-provoking,
and hugely entertaining … No-one reading Roberts could
fail to understand why Churchill topped the recent poll as
our greatest Briton.’
Richard
Overy, The Literary Review
‘As a straightforward ‘compare and contrast’
essay, it is full of telling detail, often very wittily related.’
Craig
Brown, The Mail on Sunday
‘This
stimulating and highly readable book is more than a point-by-point
comparison. It meditates on leadership itself, on history,
history-makers and history-writers, on ironies past and present.’
Alan
Judd, The Daily Telegraph
‘Fascinating
and thought-provoking. … Thoroughly well-worth reading.’
Antony
Beevor, The Sunday Telegraph
‘The
best recommendation of this very entertaining and convincing
book it that it is full, not just of funny and engaging stories
very well told, but of some very startling illustrations.’
Philip
Hensher, The Spectator
‘The study of history remains a constant joy, as well
as a challenge and a path to enlightenment for Andrew Roberts.
That is why indubitably, Hitler and Churchill: Secrets of
Leadership is the most accomplished – and sexiest -
historical work published so far this year. It is also one
of the most pertinent.’
Michael Beaumont,
Yorkshire Post
‘A rattlingly enjoyable book’
The Economist
‘Roberts’s strength is in his
unashamed selectiveness. The essential often lies in the detail.
One may quibble or even disagree with some of the things he
says, but the point of the book is to stimulate thinking and
in that he most certainly succeeds.’
Irish Independent
‘Andrew Roberts’s stylish, analytical
and often unexpectedly amusing study of these two adversaries
is a brilliant and highly readable demonstration of how Hitler
and Churchill’s seemingly very different forms of greatness
exhibited shared elements. Often, glorious humour leaps from
the fascinating illustrations that so enliven and illuminate
the author’s text. With Roberts’s light and elegant
touch, and gimlet-sharp perceptions, this book is not to be
missed.’
Colin McKelvie, The
Field
‘As a study of leadership, of good
and evil, this is a fascinating book that is as timely as
ever.’
Contemporary Review
‘Andrew Roberts does a first rate
job unmasking the men behind the medals.’
Daily Express
‘It’s testament to Roberts’s
elegant yet plain speaking prose that he manages to squeeze
such an epic chunk of history into 350 pages.’
Richard Warburton,
Birmingham Post
‘Enthralling, informative, compelling
and brilliantly written.’
Mentor
‘It is enthralling, informative, compelling
and brilliantly written. History, unlike literary criticism,
is lucky in that it has first-rank scholars who can write
in a direct and simply way. Andrew Roberts is one of the very
best.’
Eric Hester, Catholic
Times
‘This fascinating book examines the very different leadership
styles of Winston Churchill and his great adversary. In the
process, Roberts dissects their personalities and lifestyles,
right down to tastes in food, clothes and friends.’
Western Daily
Press
‘Andrew Roberts’s book on the
leadership styles of Churchill and Hitler has a good deal
of relevance.’
Leicester Mercury
‘Andrew Roberts, in his own inimitable
style, offers a contrasting study of leadership in ‘Hitler
& Churchill’’
John Yates, Writers
News
‘Roberts finds enough points of convergence
between the two men to produce an attractively constructed
diptych.’
The Week
‘Roberts argues that the nature of
leadership still largely relies on appeal to a limited range
of human emotions. In this book, he shows how both Hitler
and Churchill did this.’
The Northumberland
Journal
‘Fascinating’
Evening Chronicle,
County Durham
‘One of the merits of Roberts’s Churchill is that,
though his version is broadly orthodox, it is written with
enough weight … to prompt us to think about Churchill
historiography as a whole.’
Frank Johnson,
Times Literary Supplement
‘This superb book includes plenty of insight into the
business of leadership, some surprising judgments and some
revealing details.’
Sunday Times
‘Writing with his customary
verve and wit, Roberts avoids any whiff of the exam hall in
this compare and contrast exercise.’
The Independent
‘Roberts is full of good
stories, including the true version of how Churchill took
over in 1940.’
Sunday Telegraph
‘Roberts eschews pedestrian
point-by-point comparisons in favour of a more meditative
contemplation on the techniques and qualities of leadership
and the size of ego necessary to pursue it. An illuminating
essay on the two behemoths written in an accessible and often
witty style.’
Herald
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