Paul Reid, a former feature writer for Cox Newspapers, completed "The Last Lion: Defender of the Realm," William Manchester's long anticipated third volume of his best-selling biography of Winston Churchill after being asked to do so by Manchester, just one year before Manchester's death in 2004.

Reid will speak Wednesday, Jan. 30, at the Country Club of North Carolina.

The cocktail hour begins at 6 p.m., with dinner at 7 p.m.

Reid, using Manchester's 4,000 to 5,000 pages of notes, painstakingly wrote this tome, which runs more than 1,200 pages.

Tickets, which are $65 each, include one book ($40) and one dinner, or for $90, one book, two dinners.

Tickets are available at The Country Bookshop, in Southern Pines.

Call (910) 692-3211 for more information.