This is a highly readable account of the early part of World War II, when faced invasion and the bombs fell on British cities, usually , indiscriminately and almost every night. The focus is on the then new Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, and members of his immediate family during this ordeal. Much has been written about Churchill's life and about the war years, but nothing quite like this. The author has looked for some of the less reported stories from the time. He mined the unpublished parts of the war diary written by Jock Colville, Churchill's private secretary, and of Churchill's teenage daughter Mary, as well as of Mass Observation surveys taken among the general population at the time to give something of a feeling for what it must have been like to live through these events. For Churchill the pressure must have been beyond description, but what comes through most clearly is how in times of crises people carry on with their lives too, the loves, the parties, and the sometimes petty concerns of human existence carry on alongside the fear and the hope. This book brings that out brilliantly, as it does the remarkable courage and leadership shown by Churchill himself in the most challenging of times. There are lots of useful asides from the writings of the nazi leadership, with a fascinating account of Rudolf Hess's rather ridiculous attempts to broker a peace deal. At 500 pages of narrative this is a long book, but the story, though maybe familiar in its main events, races along and I was sorry when I finished it, to the point that I even read the acknowledgements at the end. Superb reading, and a timely reminder that people have successfully got through much worse than we are experiencing now., and that the good times do come again.