A compelling dual biography of Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle that shines new light on two of the greatest figures of the twentieth century.

Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle were thrown together by war. They incarnated the resistance of Britain and France to the existential threat from Nazi Germany, and their ultimate victory over Hitler has ensured their achievements will never be forgotten. But, as The Last Titans: Churchill and de Gaulle shows, that is only a part of a complex story. Both men influenced their countries, and the world around them, long after the war was won.

There was a paradox in the parallel and intertwined lives of these extraordinary men. De Gaulle – tall, gauche and incorruptible – exhibited qualities often associated with the English. Churchill – short, charming, witty and a bon vivant – resembled the quintessential politician of the French Third Republic. Their working relationship was rarely smooth, but they appreciated each other’s stature: de Gaulle said Churchill was ‘the great artist of a great history’, while Churchill recognised de Gaulle as ‘l’homme du destin‘.

Wolfson Prize-winning historian Richard Vinen explores what made these men exceptional and how profoundly they were influenced by their national cultures. Beyond personal intrigue, the book makes a wider point that Britain and France are both haunted by perceptions of past greatness. Vinen retraces the paths of two leaders who once helmed superpowers but lived to see their nations weakened by two world wars and the loss of empires.

Written with extraordinary narrative verve, The Last Titans: Churchill and de Gaulle offers a fresh exploration into the lives of de Gaulle and Churchill. By bringing their two stories into one, each man is seen afresh and we gain new insights into their achievements and their legacy today.

‘A spirited attempt at uncovering the mystery of how Birmingham has managed for so long to stand at the centre of Britain’s history without anyone noticing … This absorbing book shows us how we did it’ Observer

‘Vinen has written a history of Birmingham, but it is also a theory of Birmingham. And also, perhaps, a theory of England. I buy it’ Daily Telegraph

For over a century, Birmingham has been the second largest town in England, and central to modern history. In his richly enjoyable new book Richard Vinen captures the drama of a small village that grew to become the quintessential city of the twentieth century: a place of mass production, full employment and prosperity that began in the 1930s, but which came to a cataclysmic halt in the 1980s. For most of that time, Birmingham has also been a magnet for migration, drawing in people from Wales, Ireland, India, Pakistan and the Caribbean. Indeed, much of British history – the passage of the first reform bill, the rise and fall of the Chamberlain dynasty, racial tension – can be explained, in large measure, with reference to Birmingham.

Vinen roots his sweeping story in the experience of individuals. This is a book about figures everyone has heard of, from J. R. R. Tolkien to Duran Duran. It is also about those that everyone ought to have heard of – such as Dick Etheridge, the all-powerful Communist convenor at the Longbridge factory, or Stan Crooke, one of the remarkable West Indians interviewed for the 1960s documentary The Colony. It captures the ways in which hundreds of thousands of people – from the Welsh miners who poured into the car factories in the 1930s to the young women who danced to reggae in the basement of Rebecca’s nightclub in the 1980s – were caught up in the convulsions of social change.

Birmingham is not a pretty place, and its history does not always make for comfortable reading. But modern Britain does not make sense without it.

‘There is unlikely to be a fuller or more informative history of Birmingham than Vinen’s’ Jonathan Coe, Financial Times