The Last Titans: Churchill and de Gaulle

Highly readable ... [Vinen] draws the two men with a sure touch, their personal interactions a mix of mutual suspicion and admiration

Observer

Do we really need another book on either Churchill or de Gaulle? Yes indeed - when it is as compelling as The Last Titans. Here is a vivid and shrewd reckoning, backed by Richard Vinen's mastery of the historical sources, and now setting its assessment in the perspective of today's troubled world

Peter Clarke, author of HOPE AND GLORY: BRITAIN 1900-2000

An enthralling, penetrating portrait of two fascinating figures – and their countries – in times of war and peace

Jonathan Fenby, author of THE GENERAL: CHARLES DE GAULLE AND THE FRANCE HE SAVED

Churchill and de Gaulle were the towering figures of Britain and France during the Second World War, but they had complicated attitudes towards their own countries, just as those countries were deeply ambivalent about them. In this outstanding dual biography, Richard Vinen employs all his characteristic insight and wit in a gripping examination of the lives of these extraordinary men

Alan Allport, author of BRITAIN AT BAY: THE EPIC STORY OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR: 1938-1941

Vinen skilfully teases out the similarities as well as the differences between his subjects ... This neat juxtaposition is a good example of Vinen's analytical technique, which is fortified with extensive original research ... He provides what is most needed: insight

Literary Review

Richard Vinen’s intriguing and deeply researched biography of the leaders credited with snatching victory from defeat during the second world war is well-timed

Financial Times

A joint biography heightens each man's characteristics ... Vinen gives a stimulating account; and the comparison isn't always to Churchill's advantage

London Standard

Richard Vinen has had the excellent idea of writing a parallel biography of [Churchill and de Gaulle]…As a historian of both France and Britain, Vinen is well suited to this task. His lively book has a keen eye for quirky facts that have escaped others

Times Literary Supplement

What a fabulous book this is! Erudite and lucidly written, it’s a pleasure to read from start to finish… Vinen is particularly astute when it comes to illustrating the men’s differences… [His] book is full of perceptive observations and telling anecdotes that were new to this reader… This is a very fine and thoughtful study that provides valuable insight right up until the final page

History of War

If you had assumed you knew everything about these two men of destiny, Richard Vinen’s shrewd, provocative book will make you think again. He’s excellent at digging beneath the stereotypes, and has an enviable gift for a telling phrase: the young Churchill “left Britain as Billy Bunter and came back as Richard Hannay”, while de Gaulle “knew that France was no longer a great power and sometimes seemed to feel that his most important duty was to conceal this fact from the French people"

The Times Best Books of 2025

By examining this pair of towering figures through the lens of their long association, Vinen manages to shed light on both men - a notable achievement in a crowded field

Engelsberg Ideas Books of the Year 2025

An insightful and admirably concise study of the two leaders and their vexed relationship, which swung from fondness to fury and back again. Mr. Vinen deftly weaves character studies of both, bringing a skeptical academic eye to the legends that surround them

The Wall Street Journal

An exemplary dual biography delving into two leaders who shepherded their countries through the consequential Second World War

Seattle Book Review

A rare grandiloquent title that is not hyperbole. A superb page-turner

Kirkus (starred review)

What Richard Vinen does so brilliantly in The Last Titans is to show how the differences between these two leaders helped dictate the destinies of their people, and he does so with just the right balance of intimate detail and trenchant analysis

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