The figure who emerges from these pages is a product of his class and age, but one who was intensely driven, hardworking and unafraid to court fame or controversy, who led from the front and relied on his own eloquence to sustain his career, fund his lifestyle and shape his legacy. He embraced technological change but there were always clear limits to his radicalism, even in the early Edwardian period, and like many he seems to have become more conservative as he got older, reacting to perceived threats to the world of his youth from socialism, communism and independence movements throughout the British Empire. The aftermath of the First World War had a profound impact, challenging many of Churchill’s certainties about British power and stability. His opposition to Indian autonomy and German expansionism shared some common roots, and both brought him much criticism at the time.