My highlights from the book:

1. I started thinking about London and the German aerial assault of 1940-41, and wondered how on earth anyone could have endured it: fifty-seven consecutive nights of bombing, followed by an intensifying series of nighttime raids over the next six months. In particular I thought about Winston Churchill: How did he withstand it? And his family and friends? What was it like for him to have his city bombed for nights on end?

2. I decided to find out, and quickly came to realize that it is one to say "Carry on," quite another to do it.

3. History is a lively abode, full of surprises.

4. The only effective defense lay in offense.

5. The king harbored a general distrust of Churchill's independence.

6. He had lived his entire life for this moment. That it had come at such a dark time did not matter. If anything, it made his appointment all the more exquisite.

7. He felt great relief. "At last I had the authority to give directions over the whole scene. I felt as if I were walking with destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and for this trial.”

8. Churchill brought a naked confidence that under his leadership Britain would win the war, even though any objective appraisal would have said he did not have a chance. Churchill knew that his challenge now was to make everyone else believe it, too.

9. He considered Churchill to be inclined toward dynamic action in every direction at once.

10. "If I had to spend my whole life with a man," she wrote, "I'd choose Chamberlain, but I think I would sooner have Mr Churchill if there was a storm and I was shipwrecked.”

11. Churchill, true to his reputation, was flamboyant, electric, and wholly unpredictable.

12. Churchill issued directives in brief memoranda which he dictated to a typist, one of whom was always on hand, from the moment he awoke until he went to bed.

13. No detail was too small to draw his attention.

14. Churchill was particularly insistent that ministers compose memoranda with brevity and limit their length to one page or less. "It is slothful not to compress your thoughts," he said.

15. Anything that was not of immediate importance and a concern to him was of no value.

16. Churchill's notion of what constituted an office was expansive. Often generals, ministers, and staff members would find themselves meeting with Churchill while he was in his bathtub, one of his favorite places to work. He also liked working in bed, and spent hours there each morning going through dispatches and reports.

17. As Churchill said on frequent occasions, he wanted Germans to "bleed and burn."

18. One line stood out with particular clarity: "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.”

19. In the Churchill household defeatist talk inspired only rage.

20. Despite the grave news, Churchill seemed unfazed. “Whatever Winston's shortcomings, he seems to be the man for the occasion. His spirit is indomitable and even if France and England should be lost, I feel he would carry on the crusade himself with a band of privateers.”

21. "It would be foolish to disguise the gravity of the hour," Churchill said. "It would be still more foolish to lose heart and courage.”

22. Churchill said, "We shall not hesitate to take every step-even the most drastic-to call forth from our people the last ounce and inch of effort of which they are capable.”

23. Churchill saw the relationship in succinct terms. "Some take drugs, he said. "I take Max.”

24. Recognizing that confidence and fearlessness were attitudes that could be adopted and taught by example, Churchill issued a directive to all ministers to put on a strong, positive front.

25. “If this long island story of ours is to end at last, let it end only when each of us lies choking in his own blood upon the ground."

26. Churchill demonstrated a striking trait: his knack for making people feel loftier, stronger, and, above all, more courageous. 

27. "We shall go on to the end," he said, in a crescendo of ferocity and confidence. "We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”

28. "Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty and so bear ourselves that if the British Commonwealth and Empire lasts for a thousand years, men will still say, This was their finest hour.”

29. He had been fond of quoting a French maxim: "One leads by calm."

30. “Your idle & lazy life is very offensive to me," Churchill wrote. "You appear to be leading a perfectly useless existence." 

31. So confident was Hitler that England would negotiate, he demobilized 25 percent of his army. But Churchill was not behaving like a sane man.

32. Churchill’s message was clear. “We shall not stop fighting," he said, “until freedom, for ourselves and others, is secure.”

33. "Nothing must now be said which would disturb morale or lead people to think that we should not fight it out here."

34. It typified the uniquely unpredictable magic that was Churchill—his ability to transform the despondent misery of disaster into a grimly certain stepping stone to ultimate victory.

35. This new surge in morale had everything to do with his gift for understanding how simple gestures could generate huge effects. What had infuriated Londoners was that during these night raids the Luftwaffe seemed free to come and go as it wished, without interference from the city's strangely quiet anti-aircraft guns. Gun crews were under orders to conserve ammunition and fire only when aircraft were sighted overhead and, as a consequence, did little firing at all. Churchill now directed their crews to fire with abandon, despite his knowing full well that guns only rarely brought down aircraft. The impact on civic morale was striking and immediate. It was a curious bit of mass psychology—the relief of hitting back.

36. There was still no sign that Churchill was beginning to waver.

37. With the bombing of London came increased fears for Churchill’s safety, a concern that he himself appeared not to share. Churchill continued to visit anti-aircraft installations even as German bombers flew overhead. When raids occurred, he dispatched his staff to the shelter below but did not himself follow, returning instead to his desk to continue working.

38. Churchill did many things well, but waiting was not one of them.

39. Churchill’s resilience continued to perplex German leaders. "When will that creature Churchill finally surrender?" 

40. "My dear Prime Minister,' he wrote, "I shall never forget these days with you-your supreme confidence and will to victory."

41. It was a dire portrait, but Churchill seemed undeterred. Harriman was struck by his resolve to continue the war alone, if need be.

42. “Brush aside despondency and alarm, and push on irresistibly towards the final goal," Churchill said.

43. Goebbels confessed in his diary to feeling a new respect for Churchill. "This man is a strange mixture of heroism and cunning," he wrote. "If he had come to power in 1933, we would not be where we are today. And I believe that he will give us a few more problems yet. He is not to be taken as lightly as we usually take him.”

44. To be stupid about one's life is a crime.

45. Somehow, through it all, Churchill had managed to teach them the art of being fearless.

46. Churchill provided leadership of such outstanding quality that people almost reveled in the dangers of the situation and gloried in standing alone. Only he had the power to make the nation believe that it could win.

47. One Londoner put it best when she wrote, "Winston's speeches send all sorts of thrills racing up and down my veins and I feel fit to tackle the largest German!"

48. She told Churchill that the best thing he had done was to give people courage. He did not agree. "I never gave them courage," he said. "I was able to focus theirs.”