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This program does not include a book signing. All books will be pre-signed by the author.

On the occasion of the paperback release of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz, Erik Larson speaks about his chronicle of Winston Churchill and London during the Blitz—an inspiring portrait of courage and leadership in a time of unprecedented crisis.

On Churchill’s first day as prime minister, Adolf Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away. For the next year, Hitler would wage a relentless bombing campaign, killing 45,000 Britons. It was up to Churchill to hold his country together and persuade President Franklin Roosevelt that Britain was a worthy ally—and willing to fight to the end.

In The Splendid and the Vile, Larson shows how Churchill taught the British people “the art of being fearless.” Drawing on diaries, original archival documents, and once-secret intelligence reports, Larson provides a new lens on London’s darkest year through the day-to-day experience of Churchill, his family, and the cadre of close advisors who comprised Churchill’s “Secret Circle.”

Larson is the author of six New York Times bestsellers including Dead Wake and The Devil in the White City. He will be in conversation with Robert Costa, Chief Election & Campaign Correspondent for CBS News, and the co-author of Peril with Bob Woodward.