He was the author of 88 books, including works on Winston Churchill , the 20th century, and Jewish history including the Holocaust. The original family name was Goldberg. Vivid memories of the transatlantic crossing from Liverpool to Quebec sparked his curiosity about the war in later years. Gilbert graduated in with a Bachelor of Arts degree with first-class honours in modern history.
After two years of postgraduate work, Gilbert was approached by Randolph Churchill to assist his work on a biography of his father, Sir Winston Churchill. That same year, , Gilbert was made a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford , and became a part of a circle of academics that included C.
Lewis and J. He spent the next few years combining his own research projects in Oxford with being part of Randolph's research team in Suffolk , who were working on the first two volumes of the Churchill biography.
When Randolph died in , Gilbert was commissioned to take over the task, completing the remaining six main volumes of the biography.
Gilbert spent the next 20 years on the Churchill project, publishing a number of other books throughout the time. Each main volume of the biography is accompanied by two or three volumes of documents initially called Companions, and so the biography currently runs to 28 volumes over 30, pages , with another 3 document volumes still planned.
