Keith Robbins provides an excellent introduction to Winston Churchill's dramatic rise to power and traces the unpredictable way his career moved between triumph and tragedy. Brilliant, flawed and distrusted in his early career, he rose to become a national hero in the dark days of the Second World War. Yet after the war, Churchill was ousted from power and by 1955, eclipsed by the US and USSR, Britain seemed to be losing everything Churchill had sought to preserve. Providing a vivid picture of the political landscapes through which he moved, it outlines his career and uncovers what made possible Churchill's leading role in national and world affairs. Keith Robbins shows how Churchill's triumphs and tragedies as a statesman were inseparable from those of the nation as a whole. It explains how the Second World War transformed him into a national hero and looks at his loss of power and his defiance in defeat.