My top 10 highlights from the book:

1. Always more audacity.  (A maxim Churchill repeated to himself.)

2. The first time you meet Winston you see all his faults and the rest of your life you spend discovering his virtues.

3. "I have faith in my star. I am intended to do something in the world."

4. Beyond the vaguest of outlines, he didn't even have a plan—just the unshakable conviction that he was destined for greatness.

5. "I am certainly not one of those who need to be prodded. In fact, if anything, I am a prod."

6. Winston advertises himself as simply and unconsciously as he breathes.

7. Winston spent hours preparing for every formal lecture or even brief remarks, and would do so throughout his life.

8. Winston has spent the best years of his life composing his impromptu speeches.

9. Winston is like a strong wire that, stretched, always springs back. He prospers under attack, enmity and disparagement. He lives on excitement. The more he scents frustration the more he has to fight for; the greater the obstacles, the greater the triumph.

10. He was meant to live, of that he was certain. More than that, he was meant to do something great with his life. "I do not believe the Gods would create so potent a being as myself for so prosaic an ending."

Listen to #319 The Making of Winston Churchill