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First edition, first printing, presentation copy, inscribed by Churchill to his wartime private secretary on the front free endpaper "From Winston S. Churchill to Mrs R. E. K. Hill 1948". Hill played a crucial role in Britain's wartime government: "Few people were as close to Churchill for so long at so important a time in the nation's history" (Daily Telegraph obituary, 18 November 1992). Rose Ethel Kathleen Hill (1900-1992) was probably the most important woman in Churchill's professional life, serving as his Residential Secretary from July 1937 to September 1939, his Personal Private Secretary from 1939 to 1946, and curator of Chequers from 1946 to 1969. Hill performed many functions - accompanying Churchill in most of his travels, taking dictation of his speeches and books, organizing his literary material, arranging his schedule, and maintaining his finances. "She took dictation from him in his car, while he paced up and down his wartime bunker and even in his bedroom - where she would sit at the foot of his bed, a typewriter on her knee. She typed some of the most famous speeches in the English language... Churchill trusted her implicitly" (The Times obituary, 27 November 1992). This trust ensured there was no question Churchill would bring her into wartime Downing Street. "Many of the most awesome secrets of the war were dictated to Mrs Hill. She was always calm amid disaster" (Daily Telegraph). The Gathering Storm was the first of six volumes of Churchill's wartime memoirs, published from 1948 to 1954. This American edition preceded the British - Churchill received copies from the publisher for presentation to friends and associates. Hill sold her signed copies of Churchill's books at Sotheby's shortly before her death (The Times). READ MORE Octavo. Original red cloth, spine and front cover lettered in gilt on black ground. With dust jacket. Housed in blue quarter morocco solander box. A little bumped and rubbed at extremities, contents clean; unclipped jacket worn at extremities with tape repair on verso. A near-fine copy in good jacket. Cohen A240.1(I).a. See "Kathleen Hill", in Cita Stelzer, Working with Winston: The Unsung Women Behind Britain's Greatest Statesman, 2019.

In this volume, Churchill begins his account of the Second World War, analyzing the lead-up to the conflict, the policy of appeasement, and the events that led to the breakdown of peace.