In 1911 Walter Thompson saw a top-hated gentleman overseeing the infamous siege at Sidney Street in London's East End. In 1921 he became that man's bodyguard. In 1939 that same man was to recall him from retirement to protect him throughout the most dangerous time of his life. That man was Winston Churchill. During his first retirement, Thompson wrote about his experiences. Churchill's Bodyguard is based on the original manuscript, as well as drafts and copious notes. What emerges is a unique picture of Winston Churchill, in particular his many brushes with death, and an insight into a relationship that lasted more than twenty years and became a surprising friendship.

AN UNIQUE, INTIMATE VIEW OF WINSTON CHURCHILL BY THE MAN WHO GUARDED HIM NIGHT AND DAY FOR 20 MOMENTOUS YEARS. When Tommy Thompson as assigned to guard Winston Churchill by Scotland Yard he shuddered. Churchill was considered a tough assignment and Thompson had had his share of tough ones. From Lloyd George to King Alexander of Yugoslavia. But he did it for almost 20 years. Here is a delightful intimate view of the great statesman and his contemporaries—Lawrence of Arabia, F.D.R., Joseph Stalin, seen with the well-trained eye of a Scotland Yard man. “As intimate a portrait of Churchill as has ever been committed to print.”—San Francisco Chronicle “A supremely colorful man, chewing on his dead cigars striking matches on the walls of the kremlin parading naked before an embarrassed President Roosevelt—indifferent to the lesser things in life, but never missing the main chances of his destiny.”—New York Times “Gripping...Churchill’s biographers will unquestionably have to draw on this book by the officer who was the great man’s shadow for 20 years.”—Saturday Review Syndicate “If it’s suspense and excitement you seek in a book...just read ASSIGNMENT: CHURCHILL.”—Los Angeles Times

This in-depth account of the legendary leader’s ailments and their effects is a “tremendously important contribution to Churchillian studies” (Claremont Review of Books). Prominent physicians Allister Vale and John Scadding have written a meticulously researched and definitive account documenting all of Winston Churchill’s major illnesses, from an episode of childhood pneumonia in 1886 until his death in 1965. They have adopted a thorough approach in gaining access to numerous sources of medical information and have cited extensively from the clinical records of the distinguished physicians and surgeons invited to consult on Churchill during his many episodes of illness. These include not only objective clinical data, but also personal reflections by Churchill’s family, friends and political colleagues, resulting in a unique and fascinating study.

“An interesting and at times surprising account of Churchill's tastes as a reader…many of [these] nuggets will be new even to Churchill junkies.”—TheWall Street Journal This strikingly original book introduces a Winston Churchill we haven’t known before. Award-winning author Jonathan Rose explores Churchill’s careers as statesman and author, revealing the profound influence of literature and theater on Churchill’s personal, carefully composed grand story and the decisions he made throughout his political life. In this expansive literary biography, Rose provides an analysis of Churchill’s writings and their reception (he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953 and was a best-selling author), and a chronicle of his dealings with publishers, editors, literary agents, and censors. The book also identifies an array of authors who shaped Churchill’s own writings and politics: George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, Margaret Mitchell, George Orwell, Oscar Wilde, and many more. Rose investigates the effect of Churchill’s passion for theater on his approach to reportage, memoirs, and historical works. Perhaps most remarkably, Rose reveals the unmistakable influence of Churchill’s reading on every important episode of his public life, including his championship of social reform, plans for the Gallipoli invasion, command during the Blitz, crusade for Zionism, and efforts to prevent a nuclear arms race. Finally, Rose traces the significance of Churchill’s writings to later generations of politicians—among them President John F. Kennedy as he struggled to extricate the U.S. from the Cuban Missile Crisis. “Immensely enjoyable…This gracefully written book is an original and textured study of Churchill’s imagination.”—The Washington Post