The Splendid and the Vile

Erik Larson may not be familiar to you. I think he is better known in America. At my Thanksgiving picnic-on-a-park-bench that should have been captured by Georges Seurat, my friend the Manhattan banker gave me a present from her sister who serendipitously called in on FaceTime from Boston.

She thought I might enjoy The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson. She is spot on. Like a child at bedtime I like the same stories, especially when I know they have a fairly ‘happy ever after’ ending. Recently I have read a shelf of books about WW II in diaries, autobiographies, histories and so on. Larson covers the same ground but he mows the sward of history in a different pattern.

I’m only on page fifty-nine, so don’t expect a review of the book. However, I can review the index. Barely a mention of Chips Channon and no mention of the James’s: Agate and Lees-Milne. That’s not to say he hasn’t done his homework – the bibliography at the end is impressive. It is subtitled A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During The Blitz; he might have called it Home Front GB. Most of his material is new to me and he tells the story with a domestic touch overlaying the great events with which Churchill wrestled. He also emphasises how reliant Churchill was on his advisers. He didn’t run the war single-handed, however much Alan Brooke thought so. I’m finding it highly interesting and enjoyable.

It reminds me to go back to James Agate’s diaries, Ego. I got bogged down in volume two so will skip forward. His depiction of London during the war should be especially insightful and provide a good accompaniment to Larson.

Today is a sad day for me and many others; the funeral of an old friend who has died of cancer: Homan Potterton.