If you want to know about Winston Churchill's early life and just how well he was able to write well then look no further. The prose is rich, his vocabulary is extensive and the phrasing is pure Churchill. This is a great introduction into his life and writing ability and many sayings and phrases Churchill is known for are given in this volume. Few, if any, are willing to risk potential embarrassment by stating as one of their life's accomplishments any book that they have read. However, if one is able to add having read this book among those achievements then at least that part of their life will not have been wasted.

I got this for my grandfather for Christmas. He was POW during WWII, and was wanting to read about Churchill's POW experiences. A big hit!! My grandfather couldn't put the book down.

I got this for my grandfather for Christmas. He was POW during WWII, and was wanting to read about Churchill's POW experiences. A big hit!! My grandfather couldn't put the book down.

His writing is great; his stories are told in a refreshing, whimsical tone; and one gets the sense that he loves his life. Even though I was very familiar with the event of his life before reading this, I found it thoroughly engaging and would recommend it to anyone with an interest in this extraordinary man.

His writing is great; his stories are told in a refreshing, whimsical tone; and one gets the sense that he loves his life. Even though I was very familiar with the event of his life before reading this, I found it thoroughly engaging and would recommend it to anyone with an interest in this extraordinary man.

This 372 page long book would be good, but no more, if it wasn't for the first 40-or-so pages, which are a gem. The book covers the first 30 years of Churchill's life and the first forty pages cover his childhood. Although Churchill had a miserable childhood - his father was distant, his mother more interested in lovers than in her son, and he was bullied at boarding school - Churchill narrates his story with unsurpassed wit and without any hard feelings for the ones that failed him. Some passages, like the description of how he was grappling with the beast called maths, are just hilarious. The first forty pages alone make this book a must read. In the rest of the book, the most interesting part is the story of Churchill's capture by the Boers and escape. You don't need to be interested in Churchill, the statesman, to like this book. Here he is at his most human and disarming.

This 372 page long book would be good, but no more, if it wasn't for the first 40-or-so pages, which are a gem. The book covers the first 30 years of Churchill's life and the first forty pages cover his childhood. Although Churchill had a miserable childhood - his father was distant, his mother more interested in lovers than in her son, and he was bullied at boarding school - Churchill narrates his story with unsurpassed wit and without any hard feelings for the ones that failed him. Some passages, like the description of how he was grappling with the beast called maths, are just hilarious. The first forty pages alone make this book a must read. In the rest of the book, the most interesting part is the story of Churchill's capture by the Boers and escape. You don't need to be interested in Churchill, the statesman, to like this book. Here he is at his most human and disarming.

Definitely a good read! Churchill recounts his early years with subtle wit and elegant style. Even the battle scenes kept me interested, which was an unexpected surprise. A good view into the life of a middle-class British soldier before the World Wars.

Before the cigar-chomping, top-hat-wearing portly gentleman hit the scene, there was a young man who nearly flunked out of school, chased war around the world, played polo, participated in the world's last meaningful cavalry charge, was a war correspondent, and escaped imprisonment as a POW in the Boar War. Churchill got around plenty before settling down in Parliament and this is Churchill's own account of that part of his life.

Churchill's writing is quite engaging, and the book takes his exciting life and brings you into it. As good as autobiography gets.

Before the cigar-chomping, top-hat-wearing portly gentleman hit the scene, there was a young man who nearly flunked out of school, chased war around the world, played polo, participated in the world's last meaningful cavalry charge, was a war correspondent, and escaped imprisonment as a POW in the Boar War. Churchill got around plenty before settling down in Parliament and this is Churchill's own account of that part of his life.

Churchill's writing is quite engaging, and the book takes his exciting life and brings you into it. As good as autobiography gets.

What surprised me most about this book was the humour. I expected the familiar story of our greatest leader's early life, I expected an insightful account of Britain in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, I expected a stirring tale of a young man who was a practical adventurer just as much as politician and author. I didn't expect to laugh out loud regularly for much of the story.

If you've seen the film "Young Winston", based on this book, you will be familiar with some of the events. Other programmes and books have adequately explained his war leadership and his contribution to many serious political issues. However, the films and documentaries I have seen fail to capture the mischievous spirit communicated through this book.

This a fascinating study of a bygone age, when Britain maintained a great empire, when most politicians took the title Lord, and when politics and army officership were sports for those of independent means. Interestingly despite his aristocratic bloodline Churchill's family was not particularly wealthy and some of the most poignant lessons stem from this.

Sometimes the sentiments in the book appear bloodthirsty or imperialistic, but you have to realise that at least part of the time Churchill is writing satirically, reflecting common values which you suspect he did not always share himself. When he is sincerely expressing his own serious ideals it is usually easy to detect.

These beliefs link both his skilful analysis of historical events, and Churchill's account of his own development. For example he explains the British government's failure to be magnanimous after the early victories of the Boer war as the reason that a relatively fast-moving and honourable conflict descended into "shocking evils" on both sides. The same failing is shown as a prime force in the leftward drift of Churchill's own politics.

Churchill was a great writer, but it's instructive to learn that his facility with English developed largely because he was judged early on to be too dim to cope with Latin and Greek. The classics loss was our gain, the legacy including both Churchill's great deeds and great writing.

The last chapter is slightly disappointing, with Churchill's early parliamentary career an anticlimax, and the story stops rather than ending on a major event. That apart, the pace, interest and humour are consistent throughout.

This book was written in 1930, when Churchill was already 56, but in the "wilderness years" before he regained high office and led Britain through the Second World War. It is interesting to speculate whether the book would have been very different if it were written either much earlier or later.

If you want adventure, read this book. If you want to understand a great man, read this book. If you want to do both and have a good laugh, read this book.

What surprised me most about this book was the humour. I expected the familiar story of our greatest leader's early life, I expected an insightful account of Britain in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, I expected a stirring tale of a young man who was a practical adventurer just as much as politician and author. I didn't expect to laugh out loud regularly for much of the story.

If you've seen the film "Young Winston", based on this book, you will be familiar with some of the events. Other programmes and books have adequately explained his war leadership and his contribution to many serious political issues. However, the films and documentaries I have seen fail to capture the mischievous spirit communicated through this book.

This a fascinating study of a bygone age, when Britain maintained a great empire, when most politicians took the title Lord, and when politics and army officership were sports for those of independent means. Interestingly despite his aristocratic bloodline Churchill's family was not particularly wealthy and some of the most poignant lessons stem from this.

Sometimes the sentiments in the book appear bloodthirsty or imperialistic, but you have to realise that at least part of the time Churchill is writing satirically, reflecting common values which you suspect he did not always share himself. When he is sincerely expressing his own serious ideals it is usually easy to detect.

These beliefs link both his skilful analysis of historical events, and Churchill's account of his own development. For example he explains the British government's failure to be magnanimous after the early victories of the Boer war as the reason that a relatively fast-moving and honourable conflict descended into "shocking evils" on both sides. The same failing is shown as a prime force in the leftward drift of Churchill's own politics.

Churchill was a great writer, but it's instructive to learn that his facility with English developed largely because he was judged early on to be too dim to cope with Latin and Greek. The classics loss was our gain, the legacy including both Churchill's great deeds and great writing.

The last chapter is slightly disappointing, with Churchill's early parliamentary career an anticlimax, and the story stops rather than ending on a major event. That apart, the pace, interest and humour are consistent throughout.

This book was written in 1930, when Churchill was already 56, but in the "wilderness years" before he regained high office and led Britain through the Second World War. It is interesting to speculate whether the book would have been very different if it were written either much earlier or later.

If you want adventure, read this book. If you want to understand a great man, read this book. If you want to do both and have a good laugh, read this book.

Biographies are often interesting because the book is well written or because the subject had an extraordinary life. Churchill's autobiography is both. Churchill's early life was quite extraordinary. Using his connections (or more likely, his mother's bed partners), he was able to see service at many of the British Empire's hotspots between 1895 and 1905. He glosses over quite a bit. His mother and father both were somewhat dissolute personages but he presents an idealized portrait of them. But he gives in great detail the excitement that he experienced in India and the Sudan, and of course his daring escape from Boer captivity during the South African War.

And the writing! Churchill was a wonderful writer. Despite his upper class origins, his father and mother blew most of their money. Churchill himself enjoyed high living. So Churchill for most of his life lived a rather hand to mouth existence. His writing and lectures are what paid the bills all those years. So his writing was well crafted and entertaining.

Anyone who hated school may like this book very much. Churchill was a privileged aristocrat who viewed 'science' and 'democracy' as retrograde developments. And yet, any reader today would be naturally drawn towards the romantic, exciting, exotic picture of an empire that the young winston paints from someone born with common sense, good nature, pride and a hunger to play his part in glorious events.

This book was written by Churchill when he was short of cash - it had to be successful. Also it was written well before he became a world-weary statesman. By so royaly entertaining his readers he betrays himself to us as a pretty down to earth and likeable character - perhaps very different to the complex man he really was, or the very great man he was eventually to become.

One thing strikes me from the book is that Churchill was probably as unforgiving with himself as he was with other people - he comes across as someone with tremendous moral integrity and character. Yet, by the standards of many others he was seen as outspoken, bumptious, obdurate and opinionated, a war monger etc etc.

Progress was never made by reasonable people and this book is a superb way to get to know this mercurial, unorthodox, unlikely hero. It is a story of his coming of age at the turn of the 18th century and is one of those books that all bold adventurous men should perhaps read at some time during their lives.

A fantastic eye witness account of the British empire and the 'larger than life' people behind it.

Winston Churchill's autobiography of his early life is an engrossing and informative read. After reading other biographies of Churchill it is interesting to get the story from the Churchill himself. In addition to learning about Churchill's youth, one gets a portrait of late Victorian England, a world that no longer exists.
The opening chapters are amusing as Churchill humorlessly recalls his difficult days in the British public school system. The middle section covers his military career in India and Africa. It is hard to understand Churchill's zest for war in today's climate. Europe had not seen the destruction total war could wrought. It is miracle he survived all the engagements he took part in. As Churchill points out most believed there would never be a major war at that time and war was still considered to be romantic. He sadly points out that most his former comrades would killed in the Boer War and the First World War. The chapters on Churchill's escape from the Boer POW camp are a real treat.
"My Early Life" is one of the finest autobiographies I have read. One can see why Churchill was awarded a Nobel Prize for literature. His command of the English language is masterful. What gives added relevence to this book is that it was written in the 1920s, little did Churchill know that he would play a central role in stopping Hitler and becoming one of the world's finest spokesman for freedom.

Churchill presents us with a short and lively account of his early life, making this one of his more accessible works.

We see it all: nanny-pampered, mother-neglected child; dim-witted schoolboy but top-notch military student; officer and reporter. In fact as a reporter in the Boer war, he worked as what we are calling today (during the Iraqi war) an embedded reporter. So deeply embedded that the Boers made him a POW though he was a non-combatant.

My favourite chapters deal with his schooling. He laughs at himself, poking fun at his younger self's total ineptitude at subjects such as Latin and mathematics, all the while humbly pointing out that he became such a good writer because being perceived as such a dolt by his teaches, the only thing they'd bother teaching him was English.

The accounts of his military life are interesting but are today overshadowed by the first and second world wars, so that I was unfamiliar with the background that led to conflicts in the Soudan or against the Boer. I recommend reading up on the Boer War in a good enclyclopedia.

Througout the book, WSC displays wit and irony. WSC reminds his readers that following the Boer War, the public thought that no more wars would be fought among white people (don't ever expect WSC to be P.C.--he calls a spade a spade) and that World War One came along anyway. Since he was writing before WW2, the intent was clearly to wake his countrymen up to the possibility of future conflict.

Recommended.

For anyone unfamiliar with either Winston Churchill or William Manchester, this book provides a nice introduction to both. Remember the name Manchester, and when you're done with this book, go immediately back to Amazon.com and buy "The Last Lion", both volumes (the third volume is not yet published, alas).

There are many astonishing events in Churchill's life, and one wonders at the extent of self-aggrandizement in this book (certainly you wouldn't expect a politician to be entirely honest!). Nevertheless, if only 1/4 of Churchill's stories were true, it would be more than enough to establish him among the icons of history.

That this work ends on Churchill's (first) rise to public prominence is fitting. It is as if to say that prior to his political ascendency, Churchill's life was his own, and thus worthy of his own gifted commentary. Whereas after he became a public figure, there was really nothing more for him to personally relate (of course, Manchester's anecdotal stories concerning Churchill's bathtime hijinks put the lie to that theory - refer to the Last Lion VII). Not that there isn't plenty of autobiography in Churchill's other works (his history of World War II is rife with personal detail), but the tone is different, and the degree of revelation more subdued.

It is of incalculable benefit that we have access to such a personalized view of the childhood and formation of such a great man. Not that he could be duplicated by applying such remedies to your own children (just add syphalitic father, sexually uninhibited but devoted mother, and healthy dose of latin lessons at exclusive English school).

I must confess that among the many details contained in this book, the one that I find most revealing is Churchill's daring and disastrous gambit during a childhood game of tag (a presage to Forcing the Dardanelles?). This single incident speaks clearly to Churchill's indominatable spirit, incredible daring, and dangerous creativity.

Though there are some magnificent biographies of the man of the century none of them can give you the sense of what Churchill was really like. Here is Winston, in 1930, telling you a bit about himself. The vigor, spirt and essense of the man is just absolutely enthralling. You will see what it was that made him the man to rally the western world in it's greatest hour of darkness.

This is the man. Embrace him.