The Last Titans

I hope people read The Last Titans: How Churchill and de Gaulle Saved Their Nations and Transformed the World in two ways. I hope people who know a lot about Churchill and de Gaulle read it and think, actually, this makes me look at things in a new way. But also, I hope the book will be read by people who don't normally read history books. It's relatively short, and I wrote it hoping to capture the drama of these men's lives, so you can read it without knowing anything about them beforehand.

Every historian hopes we write something that can be read like a novel. With Churchill and de Gaulle, it's very hard not to sound like a novel, because they have completely weird lives. Sometimes the most astonishing things are hiding in plain sight in their autobiographical writings. They are extraordinary characters.

Of course, wishing to be read like a novel is itself a mind-boggling ambition. Macaulay said his great ambition was to replace the latest fashionable novel on the bedside table of a fashionable young woman. I'd be very happy if I did nothing but that.

Beyond that, as far as British people — and in a strange way North Americans too — I'd like to make them a bit more skeptical about Churchill. That doesn't mean hostile. Churchill was a wonderful man, and I'm extremely grateful he was Prime Minister in 1940. But admiring leaders doesn't mean being uncritical of them. Likewise with de Gaulle. He was in some ways a terrible man, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't admire him.

If there's a general historical lesson, it's that these are men whose lives are about living with decline. Britain and France are both countries in decline during their lifetimes. They're presiding over that decline, and de Gaulle adjusts to it better than Churchill.

The opening lines of de Gaulle’s memoirs say, “All my life I have had a certain idea of France,” but the next lines make it clear he knows that idea is a kind of fairy tale. National greatness is always a bit of a fairy tale. Sometimes it's necessary, but you're unwise if you completely buy into it. These are very strange and exciting lives.