My Early Life by {author}: summary and why it matters

What it argues

Churchill covers the first twenty-five years of his life with humor and style. He describes a lonely childhood, his difficult time at Harrow, where he says he was good at English and little else, his entry into Sandhurst, and his service with cavalry in India and the Sudan, including the charge at Omdurman in 1898.

The best-known sections deal with the Boer War, where as a war correspondent he was captured and then escaped from a prison in Pretoria, a feat that made him a public figure and helped him enter Parliament in 1900. The book ends there.

It is characteristic of Churchill that the story is presented with a good deal of self-regard and wit, and with the opinions of a young man of his class and time about empire and race.

Why it matters

It is the easiest way to meet Churchill the writer, and it shows the sources of his confidence and daring. Readers will also notice the imperial assumptions that were common then and that Roberts discusses in the later biography.

About the author

Churchill wrote the book at the age of fifty-five, when he was out of office and earning a living by his pen. It was a success in Britain and the United States, and has been translated into many languages. The title in the United States was A Roving Commission.

Who should read it

Readers who like adventure and good prose.