Finest Years

by Max Hastings

  483 ‘a place that has long been’ Mr T. Bowman The Times 30.5.42

  485 ‘A man who has to play’ WSC The Second World War op. cit. vol. v p.551

  485 ‘Winston…has taken his train’ Brooke op. cit. p.553 4.6.44

  485 ‘Mr Churchill seemed to be’ Eden op. cit. p.452

  486 ‘Cheap at the price’ ibid. p.454

  489 ‘Don’t look so glum’ Pogue op. cit. vol. iii p.394

  489 ‘We are surrounded by’ Brooke op. cit. p.557 12.6.44

  489 ‘The PM asked if I were’ Holmes diary quoted Gilbert Road to Victory op. cit. p.813

  489 ‘[Churchill] was at his best’ Cunningham diary quoted Gilbert

  490 ‘I do hope it will soon’ IWM Papers of Mrs E. Elkus letter of 2.9.44

  490 ‘He kept on repeating’ Brooke op. cit. p.563 27.6.44

  490 ‘“I feel exhausted”’ Macmillan op. cit. p.474 25.6.44

  490 ‘We have now reached’ Brooke op. cit. p.581 15.8.44

  491 ‘Whatever the PM’s shortcomings’ Colville op. cit. p.489 13.5.44

  Chapter 19: Bargaining with an Empty Wallet

  493 ‘Roosevelt sent him’ Kimball op. cit. vol. iii p.201 22.6.44

  493 ‘I cannot think of’ ibid. p.202 23.6.44

  494 ‘Whether we should ruin’ ibid. p.219

  495 ‘I should never survive’ ibid. pp.222-3

  495 ‘What can I do’ ibid. pp.229

  495 ‘The Arnold-King-Marshall combination’ PM’s personal minute to CoS 6.7.44 D.218/4 quoted Gilbert Road to Victory op. cit. p.843

  496 ‘Up till Overlord’ Colville op. cit. p.574 20.3.45

  496 ‘Up to July 1944 England’ Moran op. cit. 5.7.54

  497 ‘After dinner a really ghastly’ Eden op. cit. p.461

  497 ‘A frightful meeting’ Brooke op. cit. p.566

  497 ‘I called this “a deplorable evening”’ Eden op. cit. p.462

  498 ‘He is very tight’ Dalton op. cit. 29.4.44

  498 ‘Lunched alone with W’ Eden op. cit. p.463

  498 ‘On 4 August, when Eden’ Eden op. cit. p.467

  499 ‘he was far more law-abiding’ Brooke op. cit. p.673 23.3.45

  499 ‘Of course it was true’ BNA CAB79/77

  499 ‘We know that such’ Michael Howard Liberation or Catastrophe p.75

  500 ‘I despise the generals’ Harvey op. cit. p.349 5.8.44

  500 ‘about the necessity of’ ibid. p.351 18.8.44

  500 ‘The present purge is’ BNA FO371/39062

  503 ‘This seems to be the best’ Kimball op. cit. vol. iii p.261 29.7.44

  505 ‘After all, he is a’ CAC Randolph Churchill to WSC Churchill Papers CHAR1/381/42-44 11.8.44

  505 ‘I feel that de Gaulle’s France’ Speaking for Themselves op. cit. p.501 17.8.43

  506 ‘They did not know’ WSC The Second World War op. cit. vol. vi p.84

  506 ‘The English are clever’ Milovan Djilas Wartime op. cit. p.401

  506 ‘all spread along twenty miles’ Speaking for Themselves op. cit. p.500 17.8.44

  508 ‘I feel sure this is’ IWM diary of WA Charlotte 93/19/1

  508 ‘fooling about in Italy’ Harvey op. cit. p.355 26.8.44

  508 ‘David Reynolds notes’ Reynolds op. cit. p.395

  508 ‘the PM can be counted on’ Colville op. cit. p.595 1.5.45

  508 ‘Our Cabinet meetings certainly’ Amery op. cit. pp.994 & 1020 9.8.44 & 23.11.44

  509 ‘Churchill is preoccupied’ Berlin op. cit. pp.13 & 15

  509 ‘I do not consider it advantageous’ Kimball op. cit. vol. iii p.296

  510 ‘old, unwell and depressed’ Brooke op. cit. p.589 8.9.44

  510 ‘gargantuan in scale’ Colville op. cit. p.509 6.9.44

  510 ‘The prime minister said’ ibid.

  510 ‘all he could now do’ Colville op. cit. p.510 7.9.44

  510 ‘Earlier that year’ Brooke op. cit. p.525 25.2.44

  510 ‘high political consequences’ WSC to chiefs of staff 9.9.44

  513 ‘Brendan Bracken dismissed him’ Colville op. cit. p.555 23.1.45

  513 ‘Yet there is no reason’ BNA FO371/38550/AN4451

  513 ‘my illusions about the French’ Colville op. cit. 20.9.44

  516 ‘The affairs go well’ Speaking for Themselves op. cit. p.306 13.10.44

  516 ‘We fucked this England!’ Chuev op. cit. p.75

  517 ‘Our lot from London’ BNA CAB120/165

  517 ‘The Poles’ game is up’ Moran op. cit. p.249 17.10.43

  518 ‘Far quicker than the British’ CAC Deakin Papers op. cit. DEAL16 p.14

  519 ‘You must remember’ BNA PREM4/337/23 3.12.44

  520 ‘How much depends on this man’ Headlam op. cit. p.435 13.12.44

  520 ‘He oughtn’t to do it’ Nicolson op. cit. p.406 9.10.44

  520 ‘But he has no need’ ibid. p.352 22.2.44

  520 ‘The upper classes feel’ ibid. p.356 27.3.44

  520 ‘Winston Churchill is a bastard’ ibid. p.347 7.2.44

  521 ‘Collins, I should like’ ibid. pp.408-9 27.10.44

  521 ‘completely frozen’ Brooke op. cit. p.625 13.11.44

  522 ‘[He] is fighting for the future’ Spectator 24.11.44

  Chapter 20: Athens: ‘Wounded in the House of Our Friends’

  524 ‘It is good that there is’ Eden op. cit. 26.10.44

  525 ‘Despite Churchill’s belief’ Mazower Inside Hitler’s Greece op. cit. p.352

  526 ‘My darling Winston’ Speaking for Themselves op. cit. p.507 4.12.44

  527 ‘We expect the Italians’ Foreign Relations of the United States 1944 vol. iii p.1162

  527 ‘“Liberal” papers’ USNA RG59 Box 11 State Department Surveys of public opinion on international affairs 1943-1975

  528 ‘Substantially universal approval’ USNA RG59 Box 11 Survey No. 17 23.12.44

  528 ‘A Princeton poll’ USNA RG59 Box 11 Princeton Poll 23.12.44

  528 ‘Winston Churchill, the present’ Tribune December 1944

  529 ‘This is good’ WSC to Eden 23.11.44

  529 ‘at its best was one’ Nicolson op. cit. p.416 8.12.44

  529 ‘He rambled on’ Macmillan op. cit. p.600 8.12.44

  530 ‘I think we have had’ Post 11.12.44

  531 ‘Our version of the facts’ BNA CAB121/559

  532 ‘We do not wish to start’ Macmillan op. cit. p.612 19.12.44

  532 ‘These ELAS guerillas’ IWM 06/110/1 letter of 7.1.45

  533 ‘but I think the bulk’ IWM 86/61/1 letters of 5.12.44, 12.12.44 & 5.2.45

  533 ‘Poor Winston!’ Macmillan op. cit. p.613

  533 ‘I won’t install a Dictator’ Cadogan op. cit. p.689 21.12.44

  534 ‘Indignation with Britain’ Washington Despatches op. cit. p.481 24.12.44

  534 ‘Glad I am not going’ CAC Martin Papers op. cit. MART/2 24.12.44

  535 ‘had the air of men’ Osbert Lancaster Spectator 12.11.65

  535 ‘in a most mellow’ Macmillan op. cit. p.616 25.12.44

  535 ‘struck me as a very remarkable’ Hansard 18.1.45

  535 ‘We are now in the curious’ Colville op. cit. p.540 26.12.44

  536 ‘the pink and ochre’ Hansard 18.1.45

  536 ‘One can see the smoke’ Colville op. cit. p.540

  536 ‘The change in his appearance’ Lancaster Spectator op. cit.

  537 ‘three shabby desperados’ Colville op. cit. p.541 26.12.44

  537 ‘after some consideration’ Speaking for Themselves op. cit. p.509 26-27.12.44

  537 ‘I thought it all very disingenuous’ Macmillan op. cit. p.619 26.12.44

  538 ‘I cannot tell you the feeling’ Lancaster op. cit.

  538 ‘Sit down, butcher!’ Macmillan op. cit. p.619 27.12.44

  538 ‘Of course this affair is’ ibid.

  538 ‘This Wednesday has been’ Speaking for Themselves p.509 28.12.44

  539 ‘a short crack followed by’ Lancaster Spectator op. cit.

  54
0 ‘Anglo-American differences’ USNA RG59 State Department Surveys of public opinion on international affairs 1943-1975 Box 11

  541 ‘an orgy of recrimination’ USNA RG59 Box 11 p.500 21.1.45

  542 ‘The general reaction’ Washington Despatches op. cit. p.494 7.1.45

  542 ‘OWI and State Department surveys’ USNA RG59 Box 11 Survey No. 22

  542 ‘Despite recent press comment’ USNA RG59 Box 11 State Department Surveys of public opinion on international affairs 1943-1975 No. 19

  542 ‘Terrible Cabinet’ Eden op. cit. p.506 543 ‘You know I cannot’ quoted Gilbert Road to Victory op. cit. p.1138

  543 ‘France cannot masquerade’ WSC to Eden 19.1.45

  543 ‘You wouldn’t like my job’ Holmes diary 14.1.45 quoted Gilbert Road to Victory op. cit. p.1148

  543 ‘In all his moods’ Holmes letter to Gilbert 12.2.85 quoted ibid.

  543 ‘It is a mistake to try’ WSC to Eden 4.1.45

  544 ‘Smuts and I are like’ Colville op. cit. p.553 17.1.45

  545 ‘Why are we making a fuss’ BNA FO954/26/382

  545 ‘Make no mistake’ Colville op. cit. p.555 23.1.45

  545 ‘Let us think no more’ ibid. p.554 20.1.45

  Chapter 21: Yalta

  546 ‘As the purely military problems’ Harvey op. cit. p.365 11.11.44

  547 ‘I have great hopes’ Hansard 18.1.45

  547 ‘Impossible even to get’ Eden op. cit. p.511 2.2.45

  548 ‘What a hole’ Holmes diary 3.2.45 quoted Gilbert Road to Victory op. cit. p.1172

  548 ‘A terrible party’ Eden op. cit. p.512

  548 ‘Big Three’ New York Times 4.2.45

  548 ‘During the past year’ USNA RG59 Box 1 Opinion Studies special poll 22.3.45

  549 ‘We had the world’ quoted Gilbert Road to Victory op. cit. p.1174

  550 ‘Our guards compared Churchill’ Beria op. cit. p.137

  550 ‘What a crook’ Chuev op. cit. p.76

  550 ‘Soviet eavesdroppers’ Beria op. cit. p.138

  551 ‘It has gone to my heart’ CAC Martin Papers op. cit. MART2

  551 ‘I do not suppose’ Sarah Churchill Keep on Dancing pp.75-6

  551 ‘I am free to confess’ Speaking for Themselves op. cit. p.512 1.2.45

  553 ‘We must do what we can’ BNA CAB120/170

  555 ‘followed so swiftly’ BNA PREM4/77/1B/359

  556 ‘even if we go to the verge’ Colville op. cit. 28.2.45

  556 ‘He voiced aloud his fear’ ibid. p.562 23.2.45

  556 ‘he had never been more distressed’ Brooke op. cit. p.665 22.2.45

  556 ‘Churchill wants a bourgeois Poland’ Zhukov memoirs op. cit. vol. iii p.216

  556 ‘We see unprecedented unanimity’ Pravda 18.2.45

  Chapter 22: The Final Act

  557 ‘I cannot agree’ Kimball op. cit. vol. iii p.568

  559 ‘calculated to hasten’ BNA PREM3/12/2 20.4.45

  560 ‘In the full tilt of war’ Montague Browne Long Sunset op. cit. p.248

  561 ‘Portal had advocated’ BNA AIR8/436

  564 ‘It was a relief’ Brooke op. cit. p.678 26.3.45

  564 ‘I’m an old man’ Anita Leslie A Story Half Told Hutchinson 1983 pp.142-3

  565 ‘The PM is now becoming’ Colville op. cit. 24.4.45

  565 ‘What do you think?’ Zhukov op. cit. vol. iii p.224

  566 ‘His vanity was astonishing’ Colville op. cit. 26.4.45

  566 ‘I have been much disturbed’ 29.4.45

  567 ‘I fear terrible things’ BNA FO954/20

  568 ‘We have moved a long way’ Moran op. cit. p.277

  568 ‘I hoped that they would’ Ismay op. cit. p.394

  568 ‘I can’t feel thrilled’ Brooke op. cit. p.688

  569 ‘There is no doubt’ ibid. p.689

  569 ‘Without him England’ ibid. p.590 10.9.44

  570 ‘in which case there was’ Colville op. cit. p.128

  570 ‘the significance of the link-up’ Pravda 29.4.45

  571 ‘From the present point of view’ BNA FO954/26c

  572 ‘Winston delighted’ Brooke op. cit. p.690 13.5.45

  572 ‘Russian bear sprawled’ ibid. p.693 24.5.45

  572 ‘We received reliable information’ Zhukov op. cit. vol. iii p.322

  573 ‘The overall or political object’ CAB120/691

  575 ‘The idea is of course’ Brooke op. cit. p.693 24.5.45

  575 ‘“the unthinkable war”’ ibid. p.695 31.5.45

  577 ‘In London, the Unthinkable file’ BNA FO954/26c

  577 ‘On 3 July 1940, American General’ Lee op. cit. p.10 3.7.40

  578 ‘It would be the highest honour’ Eden op. cit. p.522 16.2.45

  578 ‘There are…many who think’ Stebbing 27.11.40 quoted Garfield op. cit. p.24

  578 ‘It is clear that’ Wall Street Journal 13.12.44

  578 ‘[I am] in the throes’ Mayhew op. cit. pp.234-5

  579 ‘Well, Prime Minister’ quoted Ronald Lewin Slim: The Standard Bearer Leo Cooper 1977 p.246

  579 ‘They have saved this country’ Colville op. cit. p.433 30.8.41

  579 ‘We have been the dreamers’ Foot op. cit. p.505

  579 ‘One of the most extraordinary’ IWM Papers of Mrs E. Elkus

  579 ‘a jingo election’ Harvey op. cit. p.383 10.6.45

  580 ‘I won’t have it’ Moran op. cit. p.319

  583 ‘Churchill was extraordinarily’ Rzheshevsky op. cit. pp.519-24

  584 ‘My hate had died’ WSC The Second World War op. cit. vol. vi p.545

  585 ‘I shall be only half a man’ Moran op. cit. p.313 8.7.45

  585 ‘I respect the old man’ Zhukov op. cit. vol. iii p.325

  586 ‘He had absorbed’ Brooke op. cit. p.709 23.7.45

  587 ‘During an Allied reception’ Zhukov op. cit. vol. iii p.336

  588 ‘He is again under Stalin’s spell’ Eden op. cit. 17.7.45

  588 ‘Of all the Western leaders’ Beria op. cit. p.135

  589 ‘A lot of people talked’ Colville op. cit. p.273 22.10.40

  589 ‘No one in our conference delegation’ Kumanyov op. cit. p.303

  589 ‘I still cannot comprehend’ Chuev op. cit. p.85

  589 ‘You must not think of me’ Action this Day op. cit. p.262

  590 ‘The rest of my life’ Moran op. cit. p.353

  591 ‘Churchill contributed about’ CAC Churchill Papers CHAR1/379/12-20

  591 ‘Winston’s mind has a stop’ Eden op. cit. p.350 9.11.42

  591 ‘I do not believe in this’ Moran op. cit. p.224 20.9.43

  591 ‘Churchill sees history’ Berlin op. cit. pp.4 & 12

  592 ‘After it was over’ Eden op. cit. p.551 27.7.45

  592 ‘Why don’t you tell them’ Nicolson op. cit. 7.8.42

  592 ‘No, I am a privileged’ Kennedy MS op. cit. 16.2.41

  593 ‘He would no more think’ A.G. Gardiner Prophets, Priests and Kings London 1914 p.234

  593 ‘dull cabinet without PM’ Brooke op. cit. p.388 8.3.43

  594 ‘His countrymen have come’ Moran op. cit. p.13 23.12.41

  596 ‘I should have liked’ Mary Soames to the author 23.5.2004

  SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

  The published literature on Winston Churchill is enormous. My own library includes more than a hundred titles by or about him, and over a thousand books on World War II, many of which have been marginally useful in writing this book. It seems meaningless, however, to catalogue them all. The list below details only works extensively consulted, or explicitly quoted in my own text.

  Addison, Paul, Churchill on the Home Front 1900-1955 Jonathan Cape 1992

  Aglan, André, La Résistance sacrifice: Le Mouvement Libération-Sud 1940-1944 Paris 1999

  Alanbrooke, Field Marshal Lord War Diaries 1939-1945 ed. Alex Danchev and Daniel Todman Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2001

  Ambrose, Stephen, Eisenhower the Soldier Allen & Unwin 1984

  Amery, Leo, The Empire at Bay: The Leo
Amery Diaries 1929-1945 ed. John Barnes and David Nicholson Hutchinson 1988

  Andrew, Christopher and Gordievsky, Oleg, KGB Hodder & Stoughton 1990

  Annan, Noel, Changing Enemies HarperCollins 1995

  Astley, Joan Bright, The Inner Circle: A View of War at the Top Hutchinson 1971

  —and Wilkinson, Peter, Gubbins and SOE Leo Cooper 1993

  Atkinson, Rick, An Army at Dawn Henry Holt 2004

  —The Day of Battle Henry Holt 2007

  Attlee, Clement, As it Happened Heinemann 1954

  Bailey, Roderick, The Wildest Province Jonathan Cape 2008

  —Forgotten Voices of the Secret War Ebury Press 208

  Barclay, George, Fighter Pilot William Kimber 1976

  Barker, Elisabeth, Churchill and Eden at War Macmillan 1978

  Barnett, Correlli, The Desert Generals Allen & Unwin 1983

  —The Audit of War Macmillan 1986

  Bayly, Christopher and Harper, Tim, Forgotten Armies: The Fall of British Asia 1940-45 Penguin 2004

  Beaumont, Joan, Comrades in Arms Davis-Poynter 1980

  Bellamy, Chris, Absolute War Macmillan 2007

  Bennett, Ralph, Ultra and Mediterranean Strategy Hamish Hamilton 1989

  Beria, Sergo, My Father Beria: In the Corridors of Stalin’s Regime (Moi oets Beriya: V koridorakh stalinskoi vlasti) Moscow 2002

  Berlin, Isaiah, Personal Impressions Hogarth Press 1980

  Best, Geoffrey, Churchill: A Study in Greatness Hambledon & London 2001

  —Churchill and War Hambledon & London 2005

  Billotte, Pierre, Le Temps des armes Plon 1972

  Birkenhead, The Earl of, Halifax: The Life of Lord Halifax Hamish Hamilton 1965

  Blum, John Morton, Years of War 1941–1945: From the Morgenthau Diaries Houghton Mifflin 1977

  Bohlen, Charles E., Witness to History 1929–1969 Norton 1973

  Bond, Brian, Liddell Hart: A Study of His Military Thought Cassell 1977

  Bonham-Carter, Violet, Champion Redoubtable: The Diaries of Violet Bonham-Carter ed. Mark Pottle Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1998

  Boswell, James, The Life of Samuel Johnson Everyman 2004

  Brendon, Piers, Winston Churchill: An Authentic Hero Methuen 1984

  Broad, Richard and Fleming, Suzie eds, Nella Last’s War Sphere 1983

  Browne, Anthony Montague, Long Sunset: Memoirs of Winston Churchill’s Last Private Secretary Cassell 1995