The Life of the House

The Life of the House

Author: Henrietta Spencer-Churchill

Publisher: Rizzoli Publications

Published: 2012-10-02

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 0847838560

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Respected author and designer Lady Henrietta Spencer-Churchill’s newest book inspires us to incorporate time-tested design principles into modern living. A noted authority on period homes and historic styles, Henrietta Spencer-Churchill celebrates the life of great rooms over the years and the evolution of their architectural features and interior decoration. Featuring a stunning selection of historic homes in both England and the United States, The Life of the House reveals the best of architectural and furnishing details from the last three hundred years, with ideas on updating these spaces for modern times. The book is organized by room, including the living room, from formal reception rooms to the modern-day family room; the library, once a gentleman’s retreat and now often a home office or den; the dining room, once a formal status symbol, now frequently a casual open-plan room; and the kitchen, once a servants’ area, now a multifunctional family space. Chapters on creative modern uses of such traditional rooms as ballrooms and conservatories are also included. With photographs of exquisite interiors from every important historical period and Spencer-Churchill’s fascinating text revealing life behind the scenes in these houses, this book is filled with creative ideas on incorporating traditional style into contemporary settings.


Clementine

Clementine

Author: Sonia Purnell

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2015-10-27

Total Pages: 450

ISBN-13: 0698408209

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“Engrossing…the first formal biography of a woman who has heretofore been relegated to the sidelines.”–The New York Times From the author of the New York Times bestseller A Woman of No Importance, a long overdue tribute to the extraordinary woman who was Winston Churchill’s closest confidante, fiercest critic and shrewdest advisor that captures the intimate dynamic of one of history’s most fateful marriages. Late in life, Winston Churchill claimed that victory in the Second World War would have been “impossible” without the woman who stood by his side for fifty-seven turbulent years. Why, then, do we know so little about her? In this landmark biography, a finalist for the Plutarch prize, Sonia Purnell finally gives Clementine Churchill her due. Born into impecunious aristocracy, the young Clementine Hozier was the target of cruel snobbery. Many wondered why Winston married her, when the prime minister’s daughter was desperate for his attention. Yet their marriage proved to be an exceptional partnership. "You know,"Winston confided to FDR, "I tell Clemmie everything." Through the ups and downs of his tumultuous career, in the tense days when he stood against Chamberlain and the many months when he helped inspire his fellow countrymen and women to keep strong and carry on, Clementine made her husband’s career her mission, at the expense of her family, her health and, fatefully, of her children. Any real consideration of Winston Churchill is incomplete without an understanding of their relationship. Clementine is both the first real biography of this remarkable woman and a fascinating look inside their private world. "Sonia Purnell has at long last given Clementine Churchill the biography she deserves. Sensitive yet clear-eyed, Clementine tells the fascinating story of a complex woman struggling to maintain her own identity while serving as the conscience and principal adviser to one of the most important figures in history. I was enthralled all the way through." –Lynne Olson, bestselling author of Citizens of London


Churchill and Roosevelt: The Big Sleepover at the White House

Churchill and Roosevelt: The Big Sleepover at the White House

Author: James Mikel Wilson

Publisher: Gatekeeper Press

Published: 2015-10-17

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 1619849593

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"Churchill and Roosevelt: The Big Sleepover at the White House" received the 2018 Author Academy Award in Historical Fiction. A London playwright has converted the work to a stage play with plans to premiere in England in 2019 or early 2020. This book was written for those who enjoy history and political intrigue. It will appeal to those who enjoy reading about leadership, particularly in an arena where differences in political views, temperament, and agenda had to be overcome. Without collaboration and compromise, the world as we presently know it might be considerably different. Even though the story occurred over 75 years ago, the protagonists speak in first person voice, not knowing the outcome of the crisis they must confront. Readers may not have known that Winston Churchill visited Franklin Roosevelt two weeks after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. Roosevelt insisted that Winston sleep in the White House. The two men had much in common—more than they realized. There are plenty of other surprises along the way—a chance encounter with Adolph Hitler, a fishing expedition, a shared mentor, a favorite movie, a movie producer spy, Commander Ian Fleming’s visit to the Oval Office, and canine diplomacy to name but a few. During their time together, Churchill and Roosevelt shared many private moments as they forged a bond of friendship, trust, and cooperation that enabled them to defeat their countries’ common enemies. How their relationship evolved is dramatized and personified in this book. Most of the narrative is based on documentation, but what went on behind the view of the public eye is subject to the imagination and suspense. The author fleshes out the story with conversations that may have occurred over the course of three weeks but not necessarily provable. Lastly, the writer sets out to humanize these two epic leaders of the 20th century. He reveals not only their fears and tears but also their joys, humor, passions, temperaments, and schemes. He attempts to “break into their minds” as the two men join together to save the Western world from ruin. The author has also published: “Paw Tracks Here and Abroad: A Dog’s Tale,” (2014) and “Mr. Froggy’s Dilemma,” (2018). Website: www.jamesmikelwilson.com


Churchill Style

Churchill Style

Author: Barry Singer

Publisher: ABRAMS

Published: 2012-05-01

Total Pages: 709

ISBN-13: 1613122853

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A look at the towering twentieth-century leader and his lifestyle that goes beyond the political and into the personal. Countless books have examined the public accomplishments of the man who led Britain in a desperate fight against the Nazis with a ferocity and focus that earned him the nickname “the British Bulldog.” Churchill Style takes a different kind of look at this historic icon—delving into the way he lived and the things he loved, from books to automobiles, as well as how he dressed, dined, and drank in his daily life. With numerous photographs, this unique volume explores Churchill’s interests, hobbies, and vices—from his maddening oversight of the renovation of his country house, Chartwell, and the unusual styles of clothing he preferred, to the seemingly endless flow of cognac and champagne he demanded and his ability to enjoy any cigar, from the cheapest stogies to the most pristine Cubans. Churchill always knew how to live well, truly combining substance with style, and now you can get to know the man behind the legend—from the top of his Homburg hat to the bottom of his velvet slippers. “All readers will appreciate Singer’s highly intelligent observations about how Churchill’s style contributed to, and was ultimately an integral part of his brilliant career.” —Gentleman’s Gazette


Dinner with Churchill

Dinner with Churchill

Author: Cita Stelzer

Publisher: Open Road Media

Published: 2013-01-08

Total Pages: 250

ISBN-13: 1453271619

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This engaging biography invites readers to dinner with Winston Churchill and his political guests in the years surrounding WWII. A friend once said of Winston Churchill: “He is a man of simple tastes; he is quite easily satisfied with the best of everything.” But for Churchill, dinners were about more than good food, excellent champagnes, and Havana cigars. “Everything” included the opportunity to use the table both as a stage on which to display his brilliant conversational talents and as an intimate setting in which to glean gossip and diplomatic insights and to argue for the many policies he espoused over his long political career. In this riveting, informative, and entertaining account, Cita Stelzer draws on previously untapped material, diaries of guests, and a wide variety of other sources to tell of some of the key dinners at which Churchill presided before, during, and after World War II. An “acutely revealing” and eloquent look at one of Great Britain’s most impactful prime ministers, Dinner with Churchill offers delicious new insights into the food, cocktails, and conversations that shaped history (The Times Literary Supplement).


The Splendid and the Vile

The Splendid and the Vile

Author: Erik Larson

Publisher: Crown

Published: 2020-02-25

Total Pages: 609

ISBN-13: 038534872X

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#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The author of The Devil in the White City and Dead Wake delivers an intimate chronicle of Winston Churchill and London during the Blitz—an inspiring portrait of courage and leadership in a time of unprecedented crisis “One of [Erik Larson’s] best books yet . . . perfectly timed for the moment.”—Time • “A bravura performance by one of America’s greatest storytellers.”—NPR NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • Time • Vogue • NPR • The Washington Post • Chicago Tribune • The Globe & Mail • Fortune • Bloomberg • New York Post • The New York Public Library • Kirkus Reviews • LibraryReads • PopMatters On Winston Churchill’s first day as prime minister, Adolf Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away. For the next twelve months, Hitler would wage a relentless bombing campaign, killing 45,000 Britons. It was up to Churchill to hold his country together and persuade President Franklin Roosevelt that Britain was a worthy ally—and willing to fight to the end. In The Splendid and the Vile, Erik Larson shows, in cinematic detail, how Churchill taught the British people “the art of being fearless.” It is a story of political brinkmanship, but it’s also an intimate domestic drama, set against the backdrop of Churchill’s prime-ministerial country home, Chequers; his wartime retreat, Ditchley, where he and his entourage go when the moon is brightest and the bombing threat is highest; and of course 10 Downing Street in London. Drawing on diaries, original archival documents, and once-secret intelligence reports—some released only recently—Larson provides a new lens on London’s darkest year through the day-to-day experience of Churchill and his family: his wife, Clementine; their youngest daughter, Mary, who chafes against her parents’ wartime protectiveness; their son, Randolph, and his beautiful, unhappy wife, Pamela; Pamela’s illicit lover, a dashing American emissary; and the advisers in Churchill’s “Secret Circle,” to whom he turns in the hardest moments. The Splendid and the Vile takes readers out of today’s political dysfunction and back to a time of true leadership, when, in the face of unrelenting horror, Churchill’s eloquence, courage, and perseverance bound a country, and a family, together.


The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill

The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill

Author: William Manchester

Publisher: Pan Macmillan

Published: 2015-03-26

Total Pages: 1010

ISBN-13: 1447279603

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Winston Spencer Churchill: Alone, 1932-1940 is the second volume of the outstanding three volume The Last Lion, the ultimate Churchill biography from the award-winning historian, William Manchester. In this triumphant biography, William Manchester, contends that Churchill's lonely battle against appeasement, even more than his leadership in war, was the Last Lion's finest hour. Politically isolated in Parliament, sometimes jeered at and scorned when he warned of the growing Nazi threat, Churchill stood alone, a beacon of hope amid the gathering storm.


Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill

Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill

Author: Gretchen Rubin

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2004-05-11

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 1588363848

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Warrior and writer, genius and crank, rider in the British cavalry’s last great charge and inventor of the tank—Winston Churchill led Britain to fight alone against Nazi Germany in the fateful year of 1940 and set the standard for leading a democracy at war. Like no other portrait of its famous subject, Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill is a dazzling display of facts more improbable than fiction, and an investigation of the contradictions and complexities that haunt biography. Gretchen Craft Rubin gives readers, in a single volume, the kind of rounded view usually gained only by reading dozens of conventional biographies. With penetrating insight and vivid anecdotes, Rubin makes Churchill accessible and meaningful to twenty-first-century readers with forty contrasting views of the man: he was an alcoholic, he was not; he was an anachronism, he was a visionary; he was a racist, he was a humanitarian; he was the most quotable man in the history of the English language, he was a bore. In crisp, energetic language, Rubin creates a new form for presenting a great figure of history—and brings to full realization the depiction of a man too fabulous for any novelist to construct, too complicated for even the longest narrative to describe, and too valuable ever to be forgotten.