THIS conference considered major aspects of Winston Churchill’s career and re-assessed his contribution to modern history from the perspective of the twenty-first century. For this purpose a diverse group of historians was brought together who are all experts either on Churchill or on issues with which he was closely associated. Since few people are still alive who personally knew Churchill, the opportunity was also taken to ask Tony Benn MP, Lord Carrington, Lord Deedes and Lady Soames to give us their recollections of him. We are deeply grateful to them for sharing with us their vivid and insightful memories of Churchill. We also gratefully acknowledge the assistance the conference received from the Institute of Historical Research and the Royal Historical Society. Their support was appropriate because Churchill was made an Honorary Vice-President of the Royal Historical Society in 1936 (for his biography of his famous ancestor John Churchill, duke of Marlborough) and he passionately believed in the value of historical study of the kind promoted by the Institute of Historical Research.