Jane Ridley
Grand Dame of Downing Street
First Lady: The Life and Wars of Clementine Churchill
By Sonia Purnell
Aurum Press 392pp £25 order from our bookshop
Clementine Churchill was remarkable not just for being the wife of the most famous British politician of the 20th century. She also became a major figure in her own right. Sonia Purnell claims in this new biography that Clementine was Churchill’s closest adviser and greatest influence. Her role has been underestimated. Forests of trees have been felled and libraries filled with books detailing every aspect of Winston Churchill’s career, but Clementine’s story has been neglected.
Clementine was twenty-three in 1908 when she married Winston, who was eleven years older. They resembled Beauty and the Beast. Winston was pink-skinned, round-shouldered, baby-faced and notoriously badly dressed. Clementine was taller than him and athletic, with a ‘splendid body’. She grew better-looking as she got older, and in her fifties she was stunning: white-haired and beautifully made up, with a wardrobe of bright chiffon turbans and leopard-skin coats.
Like Winston, she was the child of scandalous Edwardians. Churchill’s
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'In 2007, German scientists analysed the soil of this lunar landscape and found that 17 per cent of its weight was made up of arsenic. The ground wasn’t poisoned – it was poison.'
http://ow.ly/Ck7j50Er3mu
'Rivalries are intense and dangerous, and someone has to die.'
@NJCooper_crime on new thrillers by @HenryCPorter, @k_faulkner, @annafbailey, @mserinkelly, @JoelDicker, @AlanJParks, @whartonswords and more.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/april-2021-crime-round-up
This spring, give the gift of reading.
Give a friend a gift subscription to Literary Review for only £33.50.
https://www.mymagazinesub.co.uk/literary-review/promo/spring21/