Attlee and Churchill
By Leo McKinstry
Atlantic, 737pp, £25/$28
Talk about the descent from the sublime to the ridiculous. From Attlee and Churchill to Corbyn and Johnson, we have come down in the lift. Leo McKinstry’s study of the two most significant prime ministers of the 20th century is a delight to read, but one closes it sadly conscious of the decline of Britain and the deterioration in the quality of our public life since their time.
Churchill was marked for greatness from his youth, and nearly fell off the ladder. The historian Robert Rhodes James sub-titled his account of Churchill’s career up to 1939 A Study in Failure. Attlee had then been leader of the Labour Party for four years, but was regarded as a stop-gap, a dim and mediocre figure. The war made them both: Churchill as the defiant national leader, Attlee as his loyal deputy who held the Coalition together, and had responsibility for the Home Front. They had little in common except determination, patriotism and a commitment to democracy.
