Completely engrossing -- Andrew Roberts Combining vivid narrative and original scholarship, Candice Millard reveals how Winston Churchill laid the foundations of his political career during the Boer War. Supremely courageous, flagrantly ambitious and incredibly lucky, young Winston emerges as the authentic hero of this thrilling tale of imperial derring-do -- Piers Brendon, Former Keeper of the Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge With consummate narrative skill and admirable first-hand research, Candice Millard has added to the canon of great works on Winston Churchill a book essential to a better understanding of his life and personality. Hero of The Empire is both eminently readable and exceptionally informative about the evolution of one of Britain's greatest statesmen -- Phil Reed, Director of the Churchill War Rooms Using many unpublished sources, she weaves into a nail-biting escape story a larger picture of Africa at the cusp of the 20th century. Her eye for humanising detail, her vivid topographical descriptions and her keen awareness of the realities (and surrealities) of war come together in a truly fascinating book. -- Lucy Lethbridge * Financial Times * A gripping story [ that] casts an interestingly oblique light on Churchill's personality, and on a traumatic war. -- Lucy Hughes-Hallett * Observer * Ms. Millard also shows, as she has in her previous work, that she has a great ear for quotes - an underrated virtue in writers of history ... Her eye for detail is equally good. -- Jennifer Senior * The New York Times * This is a tremendously readable and enjoyable book ... She aims to retell the story in a thrilling contemporary style for a generation of readers, and in this she succeeds. Most historians will have cause to envy her narrative ability. Her prose gallops along; he short, action-packed chapters often screech to a halt on a cliffhanger. -- Alex von Tunzelmann * The New York Times Book Review * Thanks to her formidable storytelling skills, she has succeeded in infusing this familiar narrative with color, excitement and life. Particularly effective is her clear-eyed view of the young Churchill as a bumptious self-promoter whose exploits in Africa were as farcical as they were courageous. -- Lynne Olson * Washington Post * Few can match the originality and narrative power of Candice Millard's elegantly written and surprisingly revealing account of the young Churchill's exploits during the Boer War. -- Saul David * Daily Telegraph *
