Media review supplement

MARLBOROUGH: HIS LIFE AND TIMES (BOOK TWO), by Winston Spencer Churchill
In my review last month I wrote of Book One of this vast biography of one of Britain's greatest soldiers, and wondered whether I would go on to read Book Two. How could I not?

Book One ended with arguably Marlborough's greatest military triumph at the Battle of Blenheim, where, technically outnumbered by the French enemy, used his classical trick of imagining what his enemies believed would be his most likely course of action, and then doing the exact opposite. Time and again this gloriously simple tactic worked for him, as he moved his troops, first in the expected direction but then, almost as an afterthought, moved them another way. Here and at so many other battles he was ably assisted by his great friend and ally Prince Eugene of Savoy, a magnificent general in his own right but who nonetheless invariably co-operated with Marlborough in his famous deceiving feints.

In Book Two, we find Marlborough still at the top of his game, forcing the evil French out of Flanders and threatening, especially after the brilliant, but bloody battle of Oudenarde, to pursue them all the way to the gates of Paris itself. But at home, enemies jealous of his status and power as the first citizen of England, sought to bring him down. Among his detractors were the political commentators Swift, Defoe and Thackeray, who in a tradition that has come down to us today, were anxious to prick the pomposity of the great and good, Marlborough being as great and good as they have ever come. And in their efforts they were supported, strangely, by Marlborough's own wife Sarah.

Sarah enjoyed the greatest confidence of Queen Anne in the early years of her rule, appointed to the prestigious role of Mistress of the Queen's wardrobe and relishing her role as one of her closest advisors. But over the years the Queen gradually tired of Sarah's incessant carping about her pet theories of government, eventually alienating her to such an extent that she was dismissed from the Court and the return of the Gold Key to the wardrobe demanded. At the time Marlborough was still commanding the Allied armies in Flanders and naturally the knowledge of his wife's disgrace spread around Europe and diminished his own status.  At this point his other enemies  plotted the downfall of the man who had done so much to enhance Britain's prestige throughout the world. Finally he is dismissed from his command and forced into exile.

Perhaps fortunately for Marlborough, the death of the Queen shortly thereafter restored him to the nation's affections (it had never been lost among the ordinary people, who treated him almost as a god) and he returned in splendour. He spent his remaining years living quietly, building his great legacy, the palace at Woodstock, still the largest non-royal palace in Britain.

All in all, I pronounce this book as one of the great biographies, beautifully written and packed with the most fascinating and sometimes horrific detail. Like the day of the Battle of Malpaquet, where hundreds of French troops were forced into a narrow, but deep stream, where, desperate troops jumping into the water on top of each other, led to 800 of them drowning within feet of the banks. Churchill's description of these terrible events bring the atmosphere of battle to life so vividly we can almost smell the cordite and blood.

Magificent.