Churchill’s career is of course extremely nuanced and falls between this book at one end with Boris Johnson’s nonsense at the other (which seems to be a handful of dubious anecdotes with a couple of chapters of GCSE history thrown in to be polite). Reading either of these two books (or Inglorious Empire for that matter) will not make you smarter or even better informed.

Winston Churchill: His Times, His Crimes is a 2022 book by British-Pakistani writer, journalist, political activist and historian Tariq Ali. In it, Ali discusses Winston Churchill's racial and imperialist views. This seems to be, in essence, a hatchet job much like Shashi Tharoor’s Inglorious Empire - both these books are collections of selected stories (and in a number of instances are not even fact based) which are then invariably taken out of context. Perhaps in this post fact world, salaciousness sells better than reality and is certainly easier to churn out than proper scholarship. Essentially this is History at its worst.A view of Churchill from a left perspective, highlighting what others dare not mention, or at best, shove under the carpet, is a most welcome contribution about the so-called “great man” of British history. I have waited decades for this book.

History as polemic that occasionally loses its way down the murky paths of "his times" but nevertheless it is in the grand tradition of EP Thomson's later writing. Far from being a fierce anti-fascist, as has been presented in popular media. Churchill was an advocate and strong supporter of both Mussolini and Franco. He believed that supporting Fascism during the interwar period was the only way for Britain to maintain its empire, or so Ali argues. One of Ali’s strengths is his ability to distill and explain complicated historical events and ideas in a digestible and comprehensible manner. Namely, that fascism rose as a reaction to the socialist and Communist movements and political parties of the 1910s and 1920s. That and the Soviet army as well as the Greek and former Yugoslav resistance and partisan forces don’t get proper credit and/or attention for defeating the Fascist Nazi army of WWII. That’s the sort of talk that will get you called a legend and lead to statues of you getting put up in the UK. This was Churchill talking about how he wished to deal with the men, women and children of Kurdistan. The modern Churchill cult is out of control, closing down debate and encouraging support for twenty-first-century wars. The wartime leader has become a household god for many, preserving an antiquated vision of Britain still shared by all three parties. Yet, was he anything more than a plump carp happy to swim in the foulest of ponds to defend the Empire? It reminds me of that quote from Spike Milligan in his war diaries, about Churchill drinking Napoleon brandy whilst he was getting shot at in the trenches.

There's so much to get your teeth into with Churchill, his aggressive stance against women voting, he changed political allegiances. He repeatedly used the army on his own civilians and had the navy on standby. His admiration for fascist dictators like Franco and Mussolini. His military incompetence which led to the mass slaughter of the ANZACs at Gallipoli. The slaughter of the Greeks after they had chased out the Nazis, which then led to Churchill and his Labour successors endorsing the Greek fascists, as they were anti-communist. The Bengal famine (between 3.5-5 million perished). He despised Indians and described Gandhi as a, “malignant subversive fanatic”. His integral part in helping violently overthrow the democratically elected Mossadegh in Iran in 1953 and the war crimes in Kenya. And of course let’s not forget his suggestion for the Tory election slogan for the 1955 general election, “Keep England White.” Note that Scotland, Wales and N Ireland don’t even factor in his thoughts?...Yes it’s safe to say that Winston Churchill has quite the CV. The cover-up in Kenya ( UK concentration camps), the collaboration with facist groups in Greece, his support of Franco and Mussolini,the list goes on. In this volume, Ali also catalogues the many crimes committed by the British Empire including those in Ireland, Africa, the Middle East, and India. Throughout his life and career, Churchill was an apologist and defender of empire as well as an unrepentant racist and believer in white supremacy and the “civilized” races.