Tony Blair may now be perceived as the most pro-American Prime Minister since the war, but his desire to keep close to Washington is as nothing compared to Winston Churchill's love for the Land of the Free. Born to an American mother, Churchill spent his whole life in thrall to the power and potential of the United States, with his affection and respect reaching its apogee during his crucial bilaterals with President Roosevelt at the height of the Second World War. Tracing the great man's relationship with America from birth to death, and assessing its legacy with his successors in Downing Street, Sir Martin Gilbert now presents the first full account of what the country meant to Churchill, what he learned from it, and what he taught its leaders and people. From his first visit in 1895, when he was bowled over by American hospitality and vigour (but appalled by their 'abominable' paper currency), Churchill felt a kinship with a nation then for the first time flexing its muscles on an international stage. He urged ever closer ties through two world wars and fought throughout his life the innate anti-Americanism never far from the surface in Europe. Revealing and entertaining in equal measure, Sir Martin Gilbert's new history reveals for the first time the true extent of a passion whose effects are still felt today.