Essay Questions

What events lead up to Winston Churchill's first day in office?

On Churchill's first day as Prime Minister of Britain, Hitler invaded Belgium. German forces had already invaded Holland and Poland, and created annexed Jewish ghettoes in Poland, marching across Europe without successful resistance and garnering home support for the war with the implementation of the Final Solution in each country they overtook.

Churchill was faced with a Europe that was becoming increasingly Germanic, and also faced with the possibility that once Hitler's forces had taken all landlocked European countries, he would then turn his attention to Britain, possibly trying to invade by ocean or air. Churchill also had to find a way to keep spirits up among his people as the hardships and damage caused by the war would take an increasingly heavy toll.

How does the book portray Londoners?

Although the book does not really make any distinction between those who lived in the East End of London and those who resided in its West End, where life managed to continue to resemble something half-way "normal", the author does portray Londoners as courageous and formidable. They needed all the courage they could muster; the German Luftwaffe bombed most of the East End in The Blitz, targeting the docks and any industrial buildings that they deemed vital to the war effort, but many Londoners lived in those dockside areas and so many homes were bombed to ruins. Despite this, Londoners remained supportive of both Churchill and his strategies for ultimately winning the war.

What does the book's title mean?

The title of the book comes from a quote within the journals of John Colville, who remarked on the peculiar beauty of bombs falling over his home during a particularly bad night in The Blitz. "Never was there such a contrast of natural splendor and human vileness". This paradox is used for the title of the book because the author focuses largely on The Blitz period and the events surrounding it.