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Adrian's latest book Winston's Bandits: Churchill and his Maverick Friends was published by Biteback in August 2024. Churchill was a warm, emotional man, who needed the support of friends (and family). Through his wilderness years in the 1930s when he battled to re-arm Britain against Hitler and the challenges of leading the country's fight in the Second World World War, a small handful of individuals gave him that backing. The story of these friendships adds an unfamiliar dimension to the established narrative of Churchill as a towering, unique figure in history.
These friends were all significant figures in their own right; like Churchill himself they were individualists and non-conformists, at odds with the contemporary establishment. Brendan Bracken was a self-invented Irishman who had established himself as a leading financial publisher and gave Churchill undying loyalty. Frederick Lindemann was a distinguished scientist but an outsider; Churchill admired his judgement on the complex technological issues of modern warfare. Bob Boothby, scandalously bi-sexual, was one of the very first politicians to recognise the danger of Hitler. When war came the press tycoon Lord Beaverbrook gave Churchill a vital psychological boost in their fraught relationship.
Adrian is fascinated by the usually hidden, often flawed and sometimes discreditable processes by which governments take important decisions. He focuses on the networks of individuals and institutions which are the true deciders of events. He comments regularly on these themes to public and private audiences and the broadcast media. His popular "Eighty Years Ago" blog is tracing the events of 1944 week-by-week as they would have appeared to a shrewd member of the British public with an eye for what was going on in home politics as well as the war. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society
"A great read, dripping with intrigue, throwing new light onto a fascinating period" - Andrew Stedman, author of Alternatives to Appeasement about The First Royal Media War
"This impressive book provides a detailed exposition of the case against appeasement. Written with clarity and verve, it draws on a vast range of unpublished material..." Lord Lexden OBE, Official Historian of the Conservative Party in The House about Fighting Churchill, Appeasing Hitler.
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