Winston Churchill's key role in the outcome of the Second World War brought him international renown and arguably made him the most important figure in twentieth-century British politics.

Stuart Ball is Reader in History at the University of Leicester, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. His previous books include Baldwin and the Conservative Party, The Conservative Party and Parliment and Politics in the Age of Churchill and Attlec: the Headlam Diaries 1935-1951.