Winston Churchill was revered by millions as the saviour of Britain in the Second World War, but he wasn't just a great war leader - he wrote millions of words of journalism, he painted, he built brick walls, he owned racehorses, he gambled in Monte Carlo casinos and even wrote screenplays. Yet his personality was mercurial; bouts of hyper-activity were interspersed with black days of depression. While he had a loving marriage, he spent long periods apart from his wife and children, some of whom caused him deep anxiety and distress.

To mark the fiftieth anniversary of his death, celebrated historian Sir David Cannadine, author of In Churchill's Shadow, examines the life and career of Winston Churchill by looking at ten different themes that are less well known, but which are crucial to a fuller understanding of one of the most extraordinary individuals ever to occupy No. 10 Downing Street.

As a young man, Winston Churchill discovered his love for words and decided to make a living out of them, initially as a war correspondent. Indeed he became a writer so prolific and unstoppable that when he was hit by a car in a New York street, he dictated a thousand words about the experience from his hospital bed. Sir David Cannadine explores Winston Churchill's first career as a journalist. With extracts from Churchill's forgotten early dispatches.

Featuring Roger Allam as Winston Churchill.

Producer: Melissa FitzGerald
A Blakeway production for BBC Radio 4. Show less