New York, Sept. 4 -- Erik Larson's next book tells a story he knows has been heard before.

"The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz," which comes out next March, is set during the Nazi bombing of London in 1940-41. Countless books and movies have documented those fateful months and Winston Churchill's call to "stand up to" Hitler, so that time would be remembered as the British empire's "finest hour." But Larson said in a recent interview that he felt there were ways to dramatize those events that have yet to be fully "exploited." He is drawing upon everything from the diary of Mary Churchill, the prime minister's daughter, to intelligence reports and other materials only recently declassifie...