The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz
By: Erik Larson / Narrated By: John Lee / Epilogue By: Erik Larson
Length: 17 hrs and 49 mins
WOW! Can chaos and carnage and political machinations be good ol’ rollicking fun? YES!!!
From the get-go, with the Foreword made by Erik Larson himself, you just know you’re in for something special. The notable historian/author makes it clear that this project really grabbed him by the throat (After seeing how New Yorkers took the attacks on 9/11 as something so very personal—How greater then did London take the Blitz?), and he goes on to clearly state that his enTIRE work is based on documented facts. If, during the narrative, you hear that someone smiled? That, dear fellow Accomplice, means that little grin playing upon someone’s lips was documented. So huzzah for Larson, as I haaaate an author taking liberties with history to make things more amusing for me: Proud to be one of the great unwashed (But let’s not get into my bathing habits, shall we?).
And THEN! We look, and we see that this is narrated by the AWEsome John Freaking Lee!!! I don’t think there’s anyone, no offense to Simon Prebble/Simon Vance, who has such sweeping tones, such a dramatic flair, such an ability to go from accent to accent (Whether it’s Churhill’s grousing, Roosevelt’s hesitating, a Scottish Parliament member’s scaaaathing commentary during a Vote of No Confidence). I see John Lee, and I know without a doubt that my credit/money has been well spent and that I’m in for a, practically, Shakespearean performance. And here, in The Splendid and the Vile? He turns this monumental work of scholarship into 17+ hours of absolutely pure enjoyment. Well done, sir—I commend thee to Heaven and back!
What we have is England just as Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister after Chamberlain’s woeful mishandling of Hitler and Hitler’s aggression (And perhaps I should point here that, I know I know I know: I COULD read/listen to Churchill’s own words on the war but, like, I reeeeally have no interest in a gazillion hours of my life that don’t wallow frolicsomely in the nitty gritty and the itty bitty—I want details on how the English met the Blitz with… tea!). All the political maneuverings are here, but here also are the wonderful people who stood by him, or who supported him, or gave him the necessary nudges that he needed (I’m looking at YOU, Clementine Churchill!). His personal secretaries are covered (And wasn't it nice that John Colville kept diaries when he really shouldn’t have? Especially as he was keenly observant, not to mention pretty danged hilarious), his protectors, heads of weapons teams, etc. etc. Plus, we have the diaries of his daughter Mary, just a very, very young woman at the time.
As it’s through her words, and through observations from other family members that we get some of the most poignant words from these early years of England at war. Who else could take in stride going out with friends, be deterred from going to one bombed-out club to another still-standing one, dancing, partying, discovering the other club took MASSive casualties and then deciding to drink, dance, and be merry anyway as those in London: It’s all about surviving and LIVING. The Blitz is covered by Larson in such detail, sometimes so gruesomely (What people lived with and saw on a daily basis), that one can see that the only way to survive and make it through the next hour was by embracing time as it went on. Of course, Mary’s is a safe life, a sheltered and privileged life, but I felt the way she was conveyed showed resilience (She did get gloomy after each run-in with the realities of destruction and poverty) and some almighty pluck—Just how the people of England met each setback (Tho’ post-bombardment Coventry will break your heart).
And Clementine! I read a biography of her and at the time I reviewed it over on Audible, I’d thought she’d sacrificed her children and their needs in order to keep the hellacious typhoon that was Winston Churchill in check. Not so here: Rather, Winston left her to deal with family issues (Altho’ there was NO dealing with Randolph—What a wastrel at the time…), plus there were expectations thrust upon her as wife of the PM—which she lived up to and then some.
I loved the struggles of the people of England, whether they be tenants, farmers or writers who lost all their books after being bombed out. I loved how much faith they had in Churchill, and I loved how he rose to every occasion with just the right words. As Goebbels put it: If he’d been in power in the 30s, Germany may not have been in the position of power they were in during the early 1940s.
I did not, however, like America as it was portrayed during all these days of suffering. I’m quite interested in all things WWII, got the hankering to learn what I can about the time from my dad who was a total buff, and I’ve very much been able to see why we held back for as long as we did, but here? Listening to just how much England was dealing with all alone (Thanks a lot, Vichy France!)? Listening to how Roosevelt was sympathetic but that he did a lot of tap-dancing and dismissed what he would NOT take control of (Then, like now, ‘twas all about getting elected again)? And then to see Churchill hear Pearl Harbor was bombed and immediately say Great Britain would go to war against Japan? Sure, there was a lot in it for Great Britain, but they were stretched god awfully thin and didn’t have to do anything; I thought that was stellar.
I’ve got a LOT of audiobooks on WWII, and a few of the early years/Blitz era of Britain, but none seemed to have hit all my sweet spots the way this one did. It has the world, the countries, the cities, the politicians, the people, and most importantly, it has the families. All of those stories, rolled into less than 18-hours of Heavenly Listening.
And yes! It has John Freaking Lee!!!
Plus? The Epilogue is to die for—No loose ends, and a couple of Happily Ever Afters…!
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