this history will endure not only because sir winston has written it but also because of its own inherent virtues its narrative power its fine judgment of war and politics of soldiers and statesmen and even more because it reflects a tradition of what englishmen in the heyday of their empire thought and felt about their countrys past the daily telegraphspanning four volumes and many centuries of history from caesars invasion of britain to the start of world war i a history of the englishspeaking peoples stands as one of winston s churchills most magnificent literary works begun during churchills wilderness years when he was out of government first published in 1956 after his leadership through the darkest days of world war ii had cemented his place in history and completed when churchill was in his 80s it remains to this day a compelling and vivid historythe first volume the birth of britain tells the story of the formation of the british state from the arrival of julius caesar and the roman empire through the invasions of the vikings and the normans the signing of the magna carta and establishment of the mother of parliaments to the war of the roses