New Churchill biography draws on new materials

A new biography about Britain's former prime minister Winston Churchill, Churchill: Walking with Destiny, was recently published in China by Beijing-based CITIC Press Group, and has achieved 9.1 points out of 10 on China's popular review site Douban.

Written by British biographer Andrew Roberts, the book is based on extensive materials, like diaries, letters, unpublished memoirs and detailed notes taken by King George VI, which have never been used in former biographies of Churchill.

According to Roberts, "There have been 1,009 biographies of Winston Churchill written over the past 113 years. It might seem hubristic to say it after quite so many books, but I think the shelves will fit one more cradle-to-grave biography of him."

He made trips to many places related to Churchill, like "the Cuban jungle where Churchill heard his first shot fired in anger on the eve of his twentieth birthday",  "the battlefields of Gallipoli in Turkey where his reputation floundered", and the rooms where he was born and died.

"I hope that readers will take away from the book a sense there is still a place for honor and heroism in what can sometimes seem like a crabbed, ill-tempered and petty world. Also the knowledge that, however many mistakes one might make in life – and Churchill made dozens, this is no hagiography - if like him you genuinely learn from them you can still achieve something great," Roberts said.