The Man Within. Alison Carlson

      Preface by Alison Carlson

      When I was a child, my parents regaled me with stories

      of World War II – my father became an RAF pilot, and

      my mother was evacuated from Manchester during the

      bombings. During the war, as my parents stood in respect,

      Churchill’s iconic and sonorous voice came to them over

      the radio. It calmed them, empowered them, and wove a

      nation of embattled citizens together. Churchill’s words

      ran deep in the soul of both my parents.

      Standing five feet six-and-a-half inches tall, Churchill was

      a lone player – in his father’s eyes, in school, in Parliament,

      in the press. An outsider and perpetual underdog, he took

      an irrevocably principled stand no matter the odds and

      maintained his initiative with astonishing optimism. For

      me, it is that unshakable, unflagging spirit that is perhaps

      the most remarkable aspect of his personality. Importantly,

      the reservoirs of strength that he crafted over his life – in

      the face of adversity and in his own failures – were what

      steadied my parents, England, and the world.

      Churchill embodied a kaleidoscopic mix of personalities.

      These many facets are not readily captured in the

      photographs with which we are familiar. I have spent the

      last five years poring over photographs in the Imperial

      War Museum, the Churchill Archives in Cambridge, and

      a variety of lesser-known libraries in England, sourcing

      photographs that portray a renewed image, rather than just

      the

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