Winston Churchill is a figure well-known to people all over the world. He has been hailed as the man who saved the West, led Britain to victory in WWII, and there have been over 1000 (actually 1010) biographies written about him. Yet none of these biographies have illustratedthe life of Winston Churchill, rather they have told it. In association with the Naval Institute Press, writer Vincent Delmas and artist Christopher Regnault capture Winston Churchill’s life combining visual imagery with text in their new graphic novel, Churchill.
Summary:
The graphic novel focuses on Churchill’s drive towards glory. Beginning in 1880 a young Churchill residing at Blenheim Palace learns his ancestor, John Churchill, defeated Louis XIV at Blenheim in 1704. As a result, Queen Anne rewards John by making him the first Duke of Marlborough and granting him a palace at Blenheim. Intrigued by the Duke of Marlborough’s success, Winston begins to seek glory as his ancestor did. This quest is only reinforced by his father, Lord Randolph Churchill, who was an articulate speaker, thinker, and well-respected figure within the House of Lords. In order to achieve the prestige of both his father and the Duke of Marlborough, Churchill realizes that he will join the Army. After graduating twentieth in his class from Sandhurst Churchill uses his mother’s connections to secure placements in different military areas around the world. This is done with the full intention of becoming a member of Parliament and to surpass the glory his ancestors achieved.
Churchill became a member of Parliament in 1900 and by 1904 Churchill began to criticize aspects of his own Conservative Party. In 1908, after switching to the Labour party, Churchill became the First Lord of the Admiralty. He foresaw Germany becoming a problem and began to make plans to revolutionize the Navy. This included having more ships with larger guns, and planes all to prepare for the conflict with Germany. As the war starts with Germany and wears on with lack of progress Churchill is removed from power and defamed through a false report. In 1916, the Conservative Party regains power in the government and releases a report clearing Churchill’s name. Returning to government he introduces the concept of a tank which allows for twenty-seven miles to be gained on the war front for the cost of six million pounds. With this addition, he is tasked to convince America to join World War I and fight alongside the United Kingdom, which he successfully does.
Upon winning the Great War (WWI), Winston Churchill has the foresight to realize that the Treaty of Versailles is going to fail. Yet, he is powerless to do anything about it as his colleagues effectively made him a back bencher. In 1932 Churchill realigned himself with the Conservative Party, where he was once again challenging his own party’s policies and actions.
At the onset of World War II Great Britain’s practice of appeasement not working, Churchill was brought back to his old position as Lord of the Admiralty in 1939. By May of 1940 Churchill became the new Prime Minister and mobilizes troops against the Germans. Initially, under his leadership as Prime Minister, Britain faced several defeats including having to retreat at Dunkirk and France surrendering to Germany. Despite these losses Churchill inspired and kept both his troops and citizens optimistic as the battle progressed onto UK soil. While publicly leading his troops, Churchill was also privately convincing President Roosevelt to provide money and destroyers to help the British fight off Hitler.
As WWII progressed luck struck for Churchill three times. The first being that the British had cracked the code on the secret messages the Germans were sending to their troops. Hitler had broken a nonaggression pact with Stalin, causing a 2-front war for Germany. Japan, an ally of Germany, attacked America, pushing the United States to join the war.
In 1944 the United States, the United Kingdom and French troops under Charles de Gaulle, participated in a joint operation known as D-Day. Despite the number of soldier’s lost, D-Day was a successful operation and was the start of the end of the war for Germany. Knowing this Roosevelt choose to allow Stalin to claim Berlin, rather than risk more loss of life for the United States. After victory was claimed, Berlin and Germany were divided into sections, one under the control of the Allied forces and the other under the control of Russia. Churchill, who had a great work and friendship with FDR, was furious with Roosevelt’s decision not to claim victory as a means to stop communism. With these two groups now controlling Germany, no thanks to Roosevelt, Churchill understood that Nazism had been just been replaced by the new threat of Communism.
Significance:
There is a difference between telling history and showing history and the graphic novel, Churchill, illustrates the journey of Winston Churchill from his childhood to becoming Prime Minister of Britain during the world’s most trying time. This is done in a variety of ways starting with showing us the initial motivation for Winston Churchill to want to become involved in public service reflecting the accomplishments of his ancestor John Churchill and his father Lord Randolph. Regault’s illustrations combine with Dalmas text show us the flavor of Winston Churchill’s personality throughout the novel. You can see Churchill as he develops from childhood into adulthood and how he is less interested in living up to his family’s name and more concerned with preserving democracy not only for his country, but for the world.
Dalmas and Regault present the biography in an academic way we do not lose any of the history in the graphic novel format. The novel shows the expression on Churchill’s face as he debates in Parliament and stands firm on what he believes in. We see his motivation and his drive and the difficult decisions depicted in the illustrations. You can see the frustration on Churchill’s face when FDR would not commit to full capture of Germany because he saw that this decision would not stop the spread of Communism.
Churchill is a well-done biography. Presented in the graphic novel format it offers a different perspective of Winston Churchill’s life. Regault and Dalmas capture Winston Churchill as one of the most important democratic leaders of the twentieth-century. He not only saved Great Britain, but he saved the entire world from falling to Nazi Germany.
