Churchill: Walking with Destiny

I, Melachi ibn Amillar, being of unsound mind and body, did read Andrew Roberts' biography of Churchill "Walking with Destiny" (2018), mainly in Agios Gordios. It is very heavy, as I became particularly aware while walking there over the hills from the airport. But perhaps not quite heavy enough - as a drama it is not easy to follow clearly what the other leading politicians of the period of the age were up to: Asquith, Lloyd George, Attlee flit in and out of the narrative like butterflies, pretty things visible only when entangled in the web. Also some important elements remain mysterious, at least to me, such as the gold standard controversy, the fall of Singapore, and if I am not mistaken we last hear of the Chindits deep in the jungle, where they may still be, like those Japanese on the bypassed islands, for all I know. The style is workmanlike, infelicities are rare - the repetition of 're-election campaign' on p 955, the occasional injudicious outbursts against fellow-travellers or other critics - particularly the leaders of India (apparently contributing nothing to the defence of the subcontinent against Japan, maladministering the relief of famine, and advising Britain to surrender to the mercies of Hitler); an odd list of internet rumours (p981f) that no-one who reads this sort of tome will have (previously) heard of; and the captioning of a photo (no. 67) of Kay Summersby. As for WSC himself, the book is a little tiresome as it runs through the early period pointing out how episodes of his early life pointed to his 'destiny'. Indeed in whole it is not far from hagiography - a typical section goes: 1. Churchill says or does something dubious; 2. people criticise him for it; 3. the author points out that Churchill in fact turned out to be right in the end, or if not, just reflected the attitudes of his time.  This would be comical, with any other subject. Though for this subject I am not sure the author is not right. There are several cats in the book, though unlike Nelson and the Munich mouser, Jock (p.991) is not indexed.