News
Darling Winston book launch 20 September at The London Library
Intense relationship
Publishers Head of Zeus and author David Lough will mark the publication of Darling Winston: Forty years of letters between Winston Churchill and his mother at a launch party in the London Library on the evening of Thursday 20 September.
This is the first time that the letters between Lady Randolph Churchill – born Jennie Jerome in America – and her son Winston appear as a correspondence. Mother and son wrote to each other more than 1000 times over the course of forty years; David has found nearly 800 of the letters and uses about 450 in his selection – about a fifth are published for the first time.
Strings pulled for Winston
‘Jennie’s influence on Winston’s upbringing and on his early career – in the army, politics and books – has been under-estimated,’ says editor David Lough. ‘She pulled lots of strings among her many contacts to help get him going – for most of her life, she was much better known than he was. The idea that this relationship was a distant one is put to bed by these letters – it was usually intense for a mother-son relationship for several years. Then it changed after Jennie remarried a man of Winston’s own age – a big shock. When that marriage went wrong, Jennie needed help from Winston rather than the other way round.’
Both gifted writers
‘It is a universal story of the cycle of motherhood – but with the customary extra Churchillian twist! They are both wonderful letter-writers – the letters sparkle while telling us much about the gilded age in which they lived.’
Randolph Churchill, great-grandson of Winston, provides a foreword.
Published by Head of Zeus in the UK and as My Darling Winston by Pegasus in the US and Canada (on 3 October). Copies in the UK can be pre-ordered at the publication price of £30 (plus the author’s signature) on http://www.davidlough/uk.