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A review by hank
Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill by Candice Millard
4.0
Millard truly is brilliant in making history entertaining. I knew nothing about the Boer war before this book and now I know a bit more. Was I interested in learning about Winston Churchill? Not really but this part of his life was fascinating (due to Millard). He was a completely British, pompous ass, born into a life of privilege and with a sense of importance only found from that privilege. His claim to fame was escaping a fairly lax prison camp during a time the British were getting their asses kicked which made his escape some of the only good news going, completely inflating its importance.
Possibly Churchill would have ended up right where he did end up without this miraculous coincidence, because of his inability to imagine himself as anything but great, but maybe not. Fortune and being in the right place at the right time have much more to do with success than I am usually willing to admit.
The war and the Boers were more interesting to me as the book got going, than Churchill, but both were good. A fairly easy, quick read. 3 books by Millard, three great stories. Like a few other authors, I will read just about anything she writes at this point.
Possibly Churchill would have ended up right where he did end up without this miraculous coincidence, because of his inability to imagine himself as anything but great, but maybe not. Fortune and being in the right place at the right time have much more to do with success than I am usually willing to admit.
The war and the Boers were more interesting to me as the book got going, than Churchill, but both were good. A fairly easy, quick read. 3 books by Millard, three great stories. Like a few other authors, I will read just about anything she writes at this point.