A History Of The English-Speaking Peoples- Volumes 1-4 Winston S. Churchill

First editions, first printings. Published by Cassell in London, 1956-1958. [English History]. With occasional in-text maps and plans present. In publisher's red cloth with gilt titles to spines, top edges red, pictorial dust-jackets priced at 30s. The books have some foxing to the text blocks. Each volume has three small initials to the top of the free endpapers. Some light staining to the spine tips of the wrapper. This is a near fine set overall, with some slight wear and rubbing at the edges. This is the author's last great work, only available some twenty years after he wrote the first draft, which then lay dormant whilst he attended to National and Parliamentary matters. In his preface he remarks that the book 'slumbered peacefully', until 1956, 'when things had quietened down'. Reading reports of the last decade of his life, one is struck by the central interest this history represented in his final years, and how rapidly he sank into decline and depression after the final volume was published.