Born to a privileged family, Winston Churchill was first a Conservative then a Liberal politician, a painter, a writer, Britain's greatest military leader, a prime minister, a Nobel prize winner, and a proud father. But who was the real Winston Churchill? In this important book, Michael Paterson juxtaposes Churchill's prolific commentaries on himself with the opinions of those who knew him. From his dramatic escape as a prisoner of war in South Africa, his political career, his dark days following the Dardanelles failure and his resurgence as Britain's great wartime prime minister, this is a truly rounded portrait of one of the best-known public figures of recent history.