He was an army officer, a Nobel Prize winner in literature, and the prime minister of Britain not once, but twice. Winston Churchill is one of the most important and influential public figures in history. Born into an aristocratic family with a well-liked politician for a father and a mother who was an American socialite, Churchill was destined for a life in the public eye. He was a rebellious child―a trait that carried over into his military and political careers―and despite working with both a nanny and a governess, he did not do well in school. When Churchill applied to the Royal Military College, he took the entrance exam three times before passing and landed a role in cavalry rather than infantry due to his poor grades. Churchill, however, was not defeated, and he embarked on a fifty-year career in British politics that culminated in his accession to prime minister in 1940, as Britain struggled under war. And even as this jack-of-all-trades held various exciting and powerful positions, he was also a husband, a father, and a grandfather to ten. Who better to tell his life story than one of his own granddaughters, Celia Sandys? Sandys, a renowned author, journalist, and speaker, provides a unique and unprecedented perspective on the life and work of one of the most revered figures in Britain’s history. This fully illustrated biography is essential reading for anyone interested in learning more about Churchill and how he came to powerfully shape the world that we live in today.

Churchill: By His Granddaughter, Celia Sandys

Arts & Photography

Sandys, Celia

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

Imperial War Museums

This book offers an intimate account of the Battle of Britain, related by young pilots in their most unguarded moments, talking with their chaplain. Guy Mayfield was the Station Chaplain at the Royal Air Force’s Duxford base in the summer of 1940, and his diary is full of stories told by the pilots in his charge during that period of heroism and danger. Mayfield’s notes on his conversations deliver unique insights into the mindset of these young men as they took to the skies night after night, risking death to defend their homes and countrymen. Rounded out with photographs of the men and a context-setting narrative by historian Carl Warner, the book gives us moving insights into the men who, through their commitment and sacrifice, ensured that Britain would survive its finest hour.

Life and Death in the Battle of Britain

History

Europe

<div>Late on the night of May 16, 1943, Wing Commander Guy Gibson led 617 Squadron of the Royal Air Force on a mission code-named Operation Chastise--an audacious bombing raid across the English Channel. Their aim? Destroy three dams in the Ruhr Valley, the industrial heartland of Germany. The dams were fiercely protected. Torpedo nets in the water prevented underwater attacks, leaving air attack the only option. But anti-aircraft guns stood ready to wreak havoc on any enemy bombers daring enough to attempt an approach. What the Germans didn't know, however, was that 617 Squadron had a secret weapon--the "bouncing bomb"--and that it would be the difference maker in this attack. &#8203;Using rarely seen archival footage from Imperial War Museums' unique collection, this flip book recreates the work that went into this raid, enabling readers to watch, frame by frame, as RAF pilots attempted to perfect their technique for dropping the bouncing bomb and getting it to detonate right on its target.</div>

The Dambusters Flip Book

Military

At the outbreak of World War II, London suddenly found itself on the front line. While aerial attacks had played a part in World War I, the astounding technological advances since meant that by 1939 the city was threatened like never before. The attacks took a brutal toll. Almost 19,000 tons of bombs were dropped on the capital, and nearly 30,000 civilians were killed. The Blitz forever changed the landscape of the city, damaging iconic buildings like Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament, the Tower of London, and even the Imperial War Museums, while, in some areas, whole neighborhoods were all but wiped out. The transformation was social as well. As large numbers of service personnel arrived from the nations of the Commonwealth and from allies, London quickly became more cosmopolitan than ever, a crucial transit hub and a popular destination for troops on leave. This book tells the story of those momentous years in London’s history through the unparalleled archives of Imperial War Museums. Personal accounts from letters and diaries are joined here by images of people and places in the period, maps, and documents, to give a remarkably full picture of a city at war—and determined to win.

London at War 1939-1945: A Nation’s Capital Survives

Jeffreys, Alan

Found on everything these days from tote bags to coffee mugs to t-shirts, “Keep Calm and Carry On” has become one of the most recognizable slogans of the twenty-first century. Yet, how many people who have embraced its pithy sentiment of resilience actually know where it comes from? Here with the answer, this book reveals the truth behind the now famous poster and saying.   Tracing its origins to World War II, Bex Lewis explains how the poster was created to allay public panic in the event of a German invasion. But, this feared invasion never happened, and so the poster would have continued to reside on the dusty shelves of history were it not for a chance discovery of one of the originals by the owners of Barter Books in 2001 who put it on display in their shop in Northumberland. Since then, “Keep Calm” has traveled across the Atlantic and inspired countless variations, becoming arguably the most successful meme in history. This book tells the story of this incredible phenomenon and is richly illustrated throughout with posters and archival photographs.  

Keep Calm and Carry On: The Truth Behind the Poster

Lewis, Bex

“There is hardly any kind of work left where [women] have not succeeded in taking the place of men,” begins this entertaining facsimile reproduction from World War II.  First published in 1942, Eve in Overalls was written to highlight the huge contributions women were making to the war effort. As a result of the demands of the War, women entered the workplace in  huge numbers and took up a diverse range of professions, including air-raid wardens, signalers, electricians, and drivers as well as roles in the Navy, Air Force, and territorial services.   Surprising and occasionally shocking, Eve in Overalls reflects a time when women in the workplace were still unusual, viewed with curiosity and fascination. As a result, it provides a fascinating and eye-opening insight into the dedicated and hardworking women who helped Britain win the war and the challenges they faced.  

Eve in Overalls: Women at Work in the Second World War

Arthur, Wauters

Historical Study & Educational Resources

Churchill’s War in Words transports the reader back to the urgency and terror of World War II in order to tell the story of Churchill’s approach to the war as it unfolded. Focusing only on words used at the time—both by Churchill and those in his circle—the book reveals the way that Winston Churchill talked about the conflict in public and in private and how he was viewed at the time by family, friends, politicians, military leaders, staff, voters, allies, and enemies. Presented in chronological order and accompanied by short year-by-year introductions and one hundred images, the quotations chosen by Jonathan Asbury convey afresh the full force of Churchill’s oratory, the wit he displayed in the face of often appalling odds, and the hopes and fears that he inspired in those around him. Together they reveal to the modern reader what it was truly like to be locked in a struggle where victory—or total defeat—was yet to be decided.

Churchill’s War in Words: His Finest Quotes, 1939-1945

Biographies & Memoirs

Asbury, Jonathan

Historical

Until his death in 1957, Wyndham Lewis was a radical force in British art and literature. He was a key figure in modernism and the founder of Britain’s only true avant-garde movement—Vorticism. As a master of art and letters he earned the respect of T S Eliot and Augustus John in his lifetime and has provided inspiration for numerous other figures in art, literature, and music, including the sculptor Henry Moore, the blues rock experimentalist Captain Beefheart, and pop music pioneer David Bowie. Yet in spite of this impressive cultural legacy, Lewis’s reputation has been shadowed by his brief and regretful praise of Hitler in the 1930s. Cast out of favor for the second half of the 20th century, Lewis is only recently beginning to experience a revival of interest.   Published to accompany an exhibition of Lewis’s work at IWM North in Manchester—the first major exhibition in over forty years—this book offers a renewed perspective on this  intriguing and unusual artist and presents fifty of his most significant pieces in stunning full color.  

Wyndham Lewis: Art, Life and War

Slocombe, Richard

Individual Artists

Though the Imperial War Museum in London is one of the most popular destinations for tourists and residents in all of the city, few people realize that it was founded in the midst of World War I. As realization of the scale, and the costs, of the war grew, the War Cabinet approved a proposal to create a national war museum to collect and display artifacts that would tell the story of the war as experienced by soldier and civilian alike—and, in particular, would testify to the sacrifices the war demanded. A century later, IWM continues to fulfill that role it has held since its founding in 1917. And now, with centennial commemorations of World War I well underway, the time is right for a fresh new look at that war as well. Paul Cornish provides it here with an accessible, richly illustrated account of the war from start to finish. Building the story around IWM’s collections, the book presents events as they happened through quotations from diaries, letters, oral histories, and more; those accounts are amplified by images of countless objects from the war, from items that would have been in a soldier’s kit to paintings created by war artists. Emotive, painful, and surprisingly immediate, this account of the experience, and losses, of World War I will introduce a new generation to this landmark conflict.

The First World War Retold

Cornish, Paul

For those of us who didn’t live through World War II, it appears in our mind’s eye in black and white. Images of the Blitz, of the D-Day landings at Normandy, the liberation of Paris, the fall of Berlin—all come to us in shadowy grays and blacks, the lack of color simultaneously heightening their drama and distancing them from us. Seen in black and white, World War II seems wholly of the past, a story that’s being told much more than an experienced that men and women actually lived through. This book will help change that. Reproducing seventy-eight rare full-color images from the archives of the Imperial War Museums, it shows us a new—or at least long-forgotten—World War II. In these pages, we see the vivid hues of flames, the richly colored fabrics of flags and uniforms, intense blue skies high over battlefields, faces of suntanned soldiers on the march, and the dizzyingly complicated color of the new art of military camouflage. The result is a World War II that has been rescued from the past and restored to us, powerful and unforgettable, so we can see for the first time what our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents saw as they fought and sacrificed all those decades ago.

The Second World War in Colour

Carter, Ian

Photography & Video

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Imperial War Museums publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Imperial War Museums