Ghost of a flea: Winston�s War

? Palace of the Soviets | Main | Ethical gaming ?

April 20, 2005

Winston�s War

I have just got through Michael Dobbs' Winston's War and am looking forward to the sequel, Never Surrender. It is at times a gut-wrenching read. There were so very many interests, so very many people, who would do anything rather than face up to their responsibility and fight evil.

What inspired you to write a novel so closely based on actual historical events?

It all started over a drink in a pub with two excellent friends, the wonderful TV writers and producers Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran. One of them mentioned that the reason why Winston Churchill became Prime Minister and not any of the other candidates was because of a telegram of tremendous significance that went missing on the day he was appointed. Could it have been so chaotic, I asked myself? Could our entire history have been changed because of straying telegram?

Posted by Ghost of a flea at April 20, 2005 06:31 AM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.ghostofaflea.com/cgi-bin/mt/trackback-engine.cgi/3513

Comments

I quite liked it, but haven't started "Never Surrender" yet. He has another one, too. The Churchill Center crowd gave it a strong review.

I found myself most interested in all the other characters; it seemed these were the ones that Dobbs tried to ... ... get inside the head of. Burgess and, in particular, Chamberlain himself. He also certainly added some hues to my images of characters like Bracken, Kennedy, Horace Wilson and Joseph Ball. Dobb's certainly portrayed Chamberlain's state of mind as becoming incredibly paranoid, dark and confused.

Posted by: The_Campblog at April 20, 2005 04:47 PM