Warlord : a life of Winston Churchill at war, 1874-1945 / Carlo D'Este.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [795]-807) and index.

Prologue : May 10, 1940 -- Toy soldiers -- "A barren and unhappy period of my life" -- Sandhurst -- A young man on the make : the Fourth Queen's Own Hussars -- The jewel of empire : India, 1896-1897 -- A taste of war : the North-West Frontier, 1897 -- Soldier of fortune -- Omdurman -- David versus Goliath -- The Boer War -- The great escapade -- "The red gleam of war" -- Lessons learned -- Star bright -- The odd couple -- "Alarm bells throughout Europe" -- First lord of the admiralty -- Lighting the bonfire -- The architect of war -- Churchill's private army -- "Damn the Dardanelles! They will be our grave" -- The reckoning -- Penance -- "In Flanders fields" -- "Winston's folly" -- "A hopelessly obsolete, old-fashioned warrior" -- The shame of Munich -- "Bring back Churchill" -- "Winston is back" -- Warlord in waiting -- The Norway debacle -- The loneliest man in Britain -- "Action this day" -- Minister of defense -- The central war room -- Disaster in Flanders fields -- Deliverance -- "Don't give way to fear" -- "What a summer to waste on war" -- "Set Europe ablaze" -- London burning -- Wavell on the hot seat -- The president and the "former naval person" -- Mediterranean misadventures -- Disaster in Crete --- The endless desert war -- "Colonel Shrapnel" -- Chickens roosting in the Far East -- The quest for generalship -- Getting it right -- Alamein : the turning point -- Ike -- Torch and Casablanca -- Down the garden path -- Amid the ruins of Carthage -- The strategic air campaign -- Stranding the whale -- Overlord at last -- Summer of discontent -- Victory -- Postscript -- Epilogue : The last farewell--a look back.

A biography of Winston Churchill's astonishing military career from his youth through World War II.