Darkest Hour

A biographical portrait of Great Britain's renowned Prime Minister during World War II—the basis for the film starring Oscar-winner Gary Oldman.

"McCarten's pulse-pounding narrative transports the reader to those springtime weeks in 1940 when the fate of the world rested on the shoulders of Winston Churchill. A true story thrillingly told. Thoroughly researched and compulsively readable." —Michael F. Bishop, Executive Director of the International Churchill Society

May, 1940. Britain is at war. The horrors of blitzkrieg have seen one western European democracy after another fall in rapid succession to Nazi boot and shell. Invasion seems mere hours away.

Just days after becoming Prime Minister, Winston Churchill must deal with this horror—as well as a skeptical King, a party plotting against him, and an unprepared public. Pen in hand and typist-secretary at the ready, how could he change the mood and shore up the will of a nervous people?

In this gripping day-by-day, often hour-by-hour account of how an often uncertain Churchill turned Britain around, the celebrated BAFTA Award-winning writer Anthony McCarten exposes sides of the great man never seen before. He reveals how he practiced and re-wrote his key speeches, from "Blood, toil, tears and sweat" to "We shall fight on the beaches"; his consideration of a peace treaty with Nazi Germany, and his underappreciated role in the Dunkirk evacuation; and, above all, how twenty-five days helped make one man an icon.

Using archive material, McCarten reveals the crucial behind-the-scenes moments that changed the course of history. It's a scarier—and more human—story than has ever been told.