HISTORIAN and broadcaster David Starkey returns to Runcorn’s Brindley Theatre on May 22 for a presentation about Winston Churchill.

Entitled Churchill: Writing His Way to Power, the lecture looks at Churchill’s life between 1929 and 1939 and provides a fresh take on what these years represented for the former Prime Minister’s career.

Often seen as a period of political disgrace and dubbed the 'Wilderness Years', the decade preceding the Second World War was in fact, according to Mr Starkey, instrumental in the making of Churchill’s future.

Churchill spent his time out of office writing a four-volume biography of his ancestor John, Duke of Marlborough, who fought battles against Louis XIV in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Mr Starkey argues that Churchill’s analysis of the role of Louis XIV, who aspired to absolute power in France and hegemony in Europe, shaped the way in which he approached the war against Hitler, and that the strict working habits he developed as a writer stayed with him throughout his premierships.

For Starkey, the man who won the Second World War was not, as some people say, Churchill the failed politician, but Churchill the author of Marlborough.

Tickets are available via thebrindley.org.uk and at the box office on 0151 907 8360.