Richard Toye's detailed and thoughtful exercise in listener reception is ... both overdue and highly welcome.
Journal of Modern History
I never expected even to like this book, never mind nominate it as one of my paperback reads of the year. But it's possibly one of the most surprising histories I've ever read ... Essential reading.
Lesley McDowell, Paperbacks of the Year 2015, Independent on Sunday
The evidence is rich and varied, but the genius of Churchill's wartime writing shines through.
Good Book Guide, Fiona Lafferty
Thoroughly researched, readable and fascinating.
David Reynolds, The Guardian
[Richard Toye] provides a nuanced and discriminating account of the pivotal episode in Churchill's career.
Peter Clarke, Financial Times
The Roar of the Lion is a thoughtful and thought-provoking book.
Richard Overy, Times Literary Supplement
Toye writes lucidly, and there is no sense of repetition in the book, which forensically examines one speech after another... [There] are still a lot of new aspects of Churchill's life to be explored. Toye has found one with this first ever, comprehensive, archival based study of WSC's splendid wartime speeches.
History Today
The book explores enemy and neutral responses, as well as how the speeches were written. In doing so, it offers a nuanced portrait of a key facet of Churchill's war leadership.
Gary Sheffield, BBC History Magazine Books of the Year 2013
The main strength of The Roar of the Lion lies in its patiently researched microhistories of the speeches. Toye pinpoints the contexts in which they were written, the calculations that lay behind them, and their reception not just at home but also overseas.
Literary Review
[Toye is] one of Britain's leading historians and a man sympathetic to, but not subsumed by, the Churchill of lore and yore.
Boston Globe
Thought-provoking ... a useful corrective to the legend. Not only was there a larger variety of responses to Churchill's oratory than usually imagined, but sometimes Churchill's speeches actually depressed, rather than exhilarated. Nor did praise for his wartime oratory mean that people thought Churchill would be the best person to lead the nation after victory, as the 1945 election showed. Good military news, as Toye's evidence makes clear, was always a more invigorating tonic than the most inspirational rhetoric.
David Stafford, BBC History magazine
Toye's analysis of audience figures and personal diaries provides a fascinating insight into how the British public received Churchill's now much revered wartime speeches.
Discover Your History magazine
The details make this book a joy to read for speakers and speechwriters alike.
Denise Graveline, Eloquent Woman
The Roar of the Lion is a valuable addition to the study of Churchills wartime premiership and demonstrates that there is still much to say about the man and his work.
Kevin Matthews, Reviews in History, 14/04/2014
Toye weaves all this skillfully together to provide the most nuanced assessment yet of the impact of Churchill's rhetoric.[...] Highly recommended.
R. A. Callahan,Choice