Six Minutes in May

A fascinating and dramatic investigation into the events that led to Winston Churchill becoming Prime Minister against the odds.


‘A gripping story of Churchill’s unlikely rise to power’ Observer

London, May 1940. Britain is under threat of invasion and Neville Chamberlain’s government is about to fall. It is hard for us to imagine the Second World War without Winston Churchill taking the helm, but in Six Minutes in May Nicholas Shakespeare shows how easily events could have gone in a different direction.

It took just six minutes for MPs to cast the votes that brought down Chamberlain. Shakespeare moves from Britain’s disastrous battle in Norway, for which many blamed Churchill, on to the dramatic developments in Westminster that led to Churchill becoming Prime Minister. Uncovering fascinating new research and delving into the key players’ backgrounds, Shakespeare gives us a new perspective on this critical moment in our history.


‘Totally captivating. It will stand as the best account of those extraordinary few days for very many years’
Andrew Roberts


‘Superbly written… Shakespeare has a novelist’s flair for depicting the characters and motives of men’
The Times


‘Utterly wonderful… It reads like a thriller’
Peter Frankopan

SHORTLISTED FOR THE HWA NON-FICTION CROWN 2018

*** Selected as a 2017 Book of the Year in the Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Observer and The Economist ***