The Churchills: In Love and War

by Mary S. Lovell

Overview

The epic story of one of England's greatest families, focusing on the towering figure of Winston Churchill.

The first Duke of Marlborough (1650-1722) was a soldier of such genius that a lavish palace, Blenheim, was built to honor his triumphs. Succeeding generations of Churchills sometimes achieved distinction but also included profligates and womanizers, and were saddled with the ruinous upkeep of Blenheim. The family fortunes were revived in the nineteenth century by the huge dowries of New York society beauties Jennie Jerome (Winston's mother) and Consuelo Vanderbilt (wife to Winston's cousin).

Mary S. Lovell brilliantly recounts the triumphant political and military campaigns, the construction of great houses, the domestic tragedies, and the happy marriage of Winston to Clementine Hosier set against the disastrous unions of most of his family, which ended in venereal disease, papal annulment, clinical depression, and adultery.

The Churchills were an extraordinary family: ambitious, impecunious, impulsive, brave, and arrogant. Winston—recently voted "The Greatest Briton"—dominates them all. His failures and triumphs are revealed in the context of a poignant and sometimes tragic private life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393082265
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	05/02/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	640
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Mary S. Lovell's best-selling biographies include Straight on Till Morning (Beryl Markham) and The Sisters (the Mitford family). She lives in England.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Selective Family Tree xiv

1 1650-1750 'Thou art a rascal, John Churchill' 1

2 1850-74 Randolph and Jennie 15

3 1874-5 The Birth of Winston 44

4 1875-80 A Dysfunctional Family 54

5 1880-7 A Career Thrown Away 71

6 1887-95 Lilian's Millions 101

7 1892-5 Consuelo, the Dollar Princess 119

8 1895-9 The Unhappy Duchess 141

9 1896-9 Looking for Trouble 157

10 1899-1900 National Hero! 173

11 1900-4 The Young Lion 189

12 1904-7 My Darling Clementine 210

13 1907-8 Couples 232

14 1908-14 The Next Generation 254

15 1914-16 A Fall from Power 276

16 1917-21 The Armistice and After 306

17 1921-4 Black Times 324

18 1921-31 The Twenties 345

19 1932-7 Changes at Blenheim 369

20 1938-9 Towards Armageddon 396

21 1939-40 'But You Don't Know Me' 411

22 1941-4 The Long Slog 439

23 1943-5 Weathering the Storm 463

24 1945-51 The Aftermath 487

25 1952-5 A New Era 505

26 1955-63 Safe Harbour 528

27 1963-78 Crossing the Bar 554

Appendix 1 Family and Friends 571

Appendix 2 Lord Randolph Churchill and the Diagnosis of Syphilis 578

Notes 581

Bibliography 593

Acknowledgements 597

Copyright Credits 599

Author's Note 600

Index 601

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Lovell's writing style will keep [listeners] wanting more." —-Library Journal

Editorial Reviews

Meticulously detailed on figures like the ever fascinating Churchill daughter-in-law Pamela Harriman, Lovell softens her focus when it comes to the great man himself. Drink and depression remain mostly offstage. Nor does she probe how the clan’s absentee approach to child rearing might have related to the unhappy adult life of three of Winston and Clementine’s four grown children. Lovell steers even farther clear of the revisionist literature on both the left and the libertarian right that paints Churchill as a warmonger and political opportunist.
—The New York Times Book Review

Walter Olson

Lovell's previous biographical subjects, including Jane Digby and the Mitford sisters, connecting the upper classes of England and their long lists of lovers, mistresses, and scandals to the descendents of the Dukes of Marlborough, can now be seen as little more than preambles to her latest epic work. Preserving Blenheim, John Churchill's Oxfordshire palace built by a "grateful nation" has been the primary goal of the succeeding dukes over its 300-year history. But the Churchills were the first to take advantage of the "dollar princesses" by wedding American heiresses to preserve the immense and very expensive estate. Jenny Jerome did bring capital to her love match with Randolph, but his nephew, Sunny, the ninth duke, hit the jackpot with Consuelo Vanderbilt and her vast fortune. Alas, money and love don't always go hand in hand; few of the Ducal marriages were happy. While Lovell deals with each of the generations from the first Duke of Marlborough through present day, her focus is on Jennie Jerome Churchill and her son, Winston, thanks in part to the plentiful journals they kept. These subjects have been sufficient fodder for numerous biographies but Lovell (The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family) deftly sorts through the existing facts to create a well-researched and gossipy book. (May)

Publishers Weekly

"Intelligent and well-written…Lovell weaves together all the anecdotes so seamlessly, and it’s such fun to read."

Los Angeles Times - Wendy Smith

"Famous lives ever fascinate, and does Lovell ever deliver."

Booklist - Gilbert Taylor

"Deliciously gossipy history of Britain’s unofficial royals."

Boston Sunday Globe

"This book is more a human story than plain history…[Lovell] has done an admirable job in weaving [the Churchills’ stories] all together to create a splendid saga."

Country Life

"Lovell's writing style will keep [listeners] wanting more." ---Library Journal

From the Publisher

Although the central character here may be Winston Churchill, British biographer Lovell (A Rage To Live: A Biography of Richard and Isabel Burton) essentially offers a popular biography of several members of the 19th- and 20th-century Churchill family, with less coverage beforehand on the earlier Churchills, such as the original Duke and Duchess of Marlborough. Lovell tends to be drawn to strong female characters, and her new book is no exception; she devotes significant attention to American heiresses Jennie Jerome (Winston Churchill's mother) and Consuelo Vanderbilt (his cousin by marriage). Lovell's writing style will keep general readers wanting more, and although the information on Churchill relatives is sometimes scandalous, her treatment of Winston Churchill himself is worshipful. All in all, Lovell delves into the personal rather than the political. Ending her coverage more or less with Winston's and then his wife Clementine's death, she uses mainly published sources to describe a remarkable family that was also quite ordinary in its dysfunction and foibles. VERDICT For a more political look at Winston Churchill, readers should turn to Geoffrey Best's Churchill: A Study in Greatness. Lovell's book is recommended to general readers, especially lovers of accessible historical biography, rather than Churchill specialists.—Maria Bagshaw, Ecolab, St. Paul

Library Journal