SPONSORED BY DELAWARE HUMANITIES AND THE LEE ANN WILKINSON GROUP
Reserve your spot and join us on Thursday, June 25, when the History Book Festival will present best-selling author Erik Larson at 5:00 p.m. at our live, on-line Virtual Keynote Address. Don’t miss Larson at the official kick-off the 2020 Virtual History Book Festival—where you can Bring History Home.
Larson will discuss his newest book, The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz. Drawing on diaries, original archival documents and once-secret intelligence reports, Larson sheds new light on a pivotal year in London during World War II through the day-to-day experiences of Winston Churchill and his family.
This live virtual author event will be hosted online by the History Book Festival in cooperation with the Lewes Public Library. Log-in information will be emailed the day before the event. Because the number of connections are strictly limited, a ticket holder may watch with their household, but the log-in may not be shared with others. No recording or photography is allowed. Any questions, just let drop us a note at info@historybookfestival.org.
Get your ticket today!
If buying your book in advance of the event, please support local independent bookstores by purchasing The Splendid and the Vile at Browseabout Books in Rehoboth (the official bookseller of the History Book Festival). Online sources and digital versions are tempting; however, supporting local brick and mortar shops helps to preserve our vibrant main streets.
The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz (Penguin Random House, 2020)
On Winston Churchill’s first day as prime minister, Adolf Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away. For the next twelve months, Hitler would wage a relentless bombing campaign, killing 45,000 Britons. It was up to Churchill to hold his country together and persuade President Franklin Roosevelt that Britain was a worthy ally—and willing to fight to the end.
In The Splendid and the Vile, Erik Larson shows, in cinematic detail, how Churchill taught the British people “the art of being fearless.” It is a story of political brinkmanship, but it’s also an intimate domestic drama, set against the backdrop of Churchill’s prime-ministerial country home, Chequers; his wartime retreat, Ditchley, where he and his entourage go when the moon is brightest and the bombing threat is highest; and of course 10 Downing Street in London.
Erik Larson is the author of five national bestsellers: Dead Wake, In the Garden of Beasts, Thunderstruck, The Devil in the White City, and Isaac’s Storm, which have collectively sold more than nine million copies. His books have been published in nearly twenty countries.