Hero of the Empire

Candice Millard's narrative history of Winston Churchill's capture and escape during the Boer War — the adventure that launched his political career.

Churchill's self-invention: the Boer War escape (1899-1900) — prisoner of war in Pretoria, audacious escape, 300-mile journey to Portuguese territory — was the defining episode in Churchill's early reputation-building. Millard shows how Churchill's letters home and subsequent book (London to Ladysmith via Pretoria) transformed an escape into a heroic narrative that launched his political career. A study in how young political ambition constructs its own legend.