I think maybe it’s because we know how their story ends. And I find myself a little bit surprised, thinking, “If you’ve got to find solace in a time of mass death and destruction, you know things are pretty bad right now.” But that does appear to be a kind of an odd little phenomenon that’s emerged since everything went to hell. It is the strangest phenomenon, actually, that I am hearing this from all over the place, that people do seem to take a certain solace in reading about the saga of Churchill during the Blitz. I’ve been reading The Splendid and the Vile for the past few weeks, and I actually found it to be a strangely comforting read as I’ve been holed up. The interview has been edited for length and clarity. Rolling Stone talked with Larson about why he doesn’t consider himself a historian, the importance of having a good narrative arc, and what Churchill would have done about the coronavirus. There are narrative arcs, heroes, villains, and suspense aplenty to craft the kind of rich, immersive histories that have become Larson’s trademark. It was the year Churchill’s legacy is built on - when his most iconic speeches were delivered, when the image of him as the indefatigable bulldog was sealed. prime minister during World War II - a period when continental Europe had already been steamrolled by Hitler, America had not yet joined the fight, and England, standing alone, withstood nine months of continuous bombing raids that would kill 44,652 of the British people.
In The Splendid and the Vile, Larson turns his pen to Winston Churchill’s harrowing first year as U.K. So, despite the truncated tour, his new book, The Splendid and the Vile, has sailed up the nonfiction bestseller list, the sixth of Larson’s books to do so, including 2003’s The Devil in the White City, a true-crime masterpiece about a serial killer in Chicago amid the 1893 world’s fair that has somehow not been made into a movie yet (though Hulu is finally developing it into a series.)
Larson, 66, is a master at crafting novelistic narratives out of history, making page-turners - albeit completely nonfiction ones - out of events like the sinking of the Lusitania in Dead Wake or the Galveston hurricane in Isaac’s Storm. Instead he’s tucked away on the east end of Long Island, avoiding the plague, reading thrillers (Shari Lapena’s The Couple Next Door is hitting the spot), and fielding phone calls from the likes of me. Erik Larson should be on a book tour right now.
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