A Daughter's Tale
The Memoir of Winston and Clementine Churchill's youngest child
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- £9.99
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- £9.99
Publisher Description
At ninety years old, Mary Soames is the only surviving child of Winston and Clementine Churchill. A Daughter’s Tale follows her early life from an idyllic childhood in her own ‘Garden of Eden’ at Chartwell to her ATS service in mixed anti-aircraft batteries during the war. With glimpses into her fascinating personal diary, published here for the first time, she draws us into a world where the experiences of a packed family, social and romantic life unfold against a background of cataclysmic events.
When Chamberlain’s declaration of war in 1939 shatters Mary’s world, she begins to share the anxieties and stresses suffered by her family through her father’s position. The mutual love between Mary and her parents is evident on every page, from her Chartwell years to Winston’s defeat at the 1945 general election, when she recounts her own devastation on her father’s behalf. As she meets her future husband Christopher Soames at the end of this charming memoir, it is clear that, at twenty-four, Mary has lived a full life and is well prepared for her future as wife and mother.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Churchill's youngest daughter (born in 1922) reflects on fond memories of the famous British prime minister and on her own role in a heavy antiaircraft battery unit during WWII. Soames (Clementine Churchill) remembers her doting father and socially distracted mother as she grew from much wanted baby into early adulthood, culminating in her wedding after previous short-lived engagements. Thanks to her personal diaries and unpublished letters, Soames recreates with specificity some amusing scenes, casually dropping names like Charlie Chaplin and Lawrence of Arabia, and also commenting on the great man who, while building his power structure in government, was unable to house-train the family's beloved dog. Although occasionally overladen with daily monotony, Soames's memoir presents a unique perspective on wartime Britain and her own desire to protect her precious Papa from political and personal attacks while strengthening her own character. 32 pages of photos.