Secrets of Churchill’s War Rooms
by Jonathan Asbury

When Churchill first ventured into the underground Cabinet Room, he declared: “This is the room from which I will direct the war.” I’ve made two awestruck visits to Churchill’s War Rooms beneath London. What most impressed me was that unlike so many historical landmarks that commemorate a single event, the War Rooms preserve the artifacts and the very essence of the five years of daily toil that went into winning the War from these rooms.

From Amazon.com:

“At the war’s end, Churchill and his colleagues left the chamber and locked the door behind them—and the War Rooms remained there, untouched and little known, until the early 1980s. Today, those historic chambers are on display as the Churchill War Rooms exhibit. With Secrets of Churchill’s War Rooms, you can go behind the glass partitions that separate the War Rooms from the visiting public, closer than ever before to where Churchill not only ran the war—but won it. This magnificent volume offers up-close photography of details in every room and provides access to sights unavailable on a simple tour of Churchill War Rooms. These are views that few people in the world have ever seen. Go behind closed doors to sit at Churchill’s desk, open up long-abandoned drawers and sift through seventy-year-old papers. See the anxious scratches on the arms of Sir Winston’s chair, pick up the phone that he used to speak to the president of the United States, and examine the map that loomed over his bed as he took his famous afternoon naps.
 
Including more than three hundred detailed images and firsthand memories of Churchill as a leader, boss, father, husband, and a man, Secrets of Churchill’s War Rooms tells the fascinating story of the work carried out in these underground offices.”