Darling Winston: Forty Years of Letters Between Winston Churchill and His Mother

Between 1881, when Churchill was just six, and 1921, the year of his mother's death, Winston Churchill and Jennie Jerome were prolific and energetic correspondents. Their exchange of letters has never before been published as a volume of correspondence, and many of these intimate letters - between two highly gifted writers - are being published here for the first time.

A significant addition to the Churchill canon, Darling Winston traces Churchill's emotional, intellectual and political development as confided to his main mentor. As well as providing a basic narrative of Jennie and Winston's lives over a forty-year period, Darling Winston portrays a mother-son relationship characterised at the outset by Winston's dependence on his mother, which is dramatically reversed as her life crumbles tragically towards its end.

By:   David Lough
Imprint:   Head of Zeus
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 234mm,  Width: 153mm, 
ISBN:   9781786697707
ISBN 10:   178669770X
Pages:   576
Publication Date:   December 2018
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active

David Lough is the author of No More Champagne, a much-praised study of Winston Churchill's finances. David studied history at Oxford and later founded a business that advises families on investments, tax affairs and inheritance planning.

'Anyone who has been a parent, or, indeed, a wayward child, will relish the charming normality of Jennie Churchill's cajoling of her son Winston during his school and early Army days in this revealing collection of letters between her and Winston ... This sparkling volume will be devoured by all who revere Churchill' Daily Mail. 'The great joy of this book is to track [Churchill's] transition at about 22 from an aimless and untalented youth to a mature man' Church Times, Books of the Year. 'Rifle through 40 years of intimate letters between Churchill and his mother, the American-born British socialite Lady Randolph Churchill' Britain. 'This entertaining and illuminating collection, which could be read at a gallop or at leisure. As a whole, it is a deeply moving account ... These letters [are] edited and annotated with an admirable light touch by David Lough' Literary Review. 'By producing a book containing their correspondence stretching over 40 years until Jennie's death in 1921, Lough paints a more rounded picture of a loving mother-son relationship and what he describes as the curious mind of Winston Churchill' Sunday Independent (Dublin). 'This collection of letters is fascinating ... they shine a piercing light on the man, informed as they inevitably are by benefit of hindsight. And there is no better guide than David Lough, who provides linking commentaries and context to the hundreds of letters, so that the whole volume acts as a king of hybrid biography/autobiography of the first half of Churchill's life ... This superb exchange of letters allows us some real understanding of this unique relationship' New Statesman. 'Fascinating correspondence' Daily Telegraph. 'A significant addition to the Churchill canon' Oxford Times.