Vampires and Fleas A History of British Aircraft Preservation Book

A compelling biography of Churchill. As the author is also a long-standing member of the British Parliament the emphasis through-out is on Churchill’s political side. This is justified as Churchill’s primary life objective was to achieve political success and longevity. We follow him as he rises through the Conservative party, switched to the Liberals, and then with the demise of that party, returns back to the Conservatives.

Churchill was always a meteor. He was a welcome and vibrant addition to any party – and his goal was to have a role in the cabinet. This meteor caliber was recognized early on – he held cabinet posts in his early thirties. His written output – by speeches, newspaper articles and books was immense and of high quality.

Mr. Jenkins explains well the political relationships in Churchill’s long career from Asquith and Lloyd George to Chamberlain and Anthony Eden. Churchill was always a strong individualist – somewhat adding to the peril of his livelihood. Even though his eloquent Munich address – condemning Chamberlain’s handing over of the Sudetenland to Hitler is retrospectively seen to be correct – at the time he was highly criticized and forced to keep a low profile in order to maintain his membership in the Conservative Party.

Mr. Jenkins is less comfortable describing Churchill’s family relationships. There is little on his children, most of it being on Randolph. Given the longevity of his marriage not very much is said on Clementine. They did spend much time apart traveling; in another biography I read by Ralph Martin he speculated that she may have had a brief affair during a sea voyage she took. The author does elaborate on the peculiar relationship Churchill had with both his parents – Randolph and Jennie. There is no mention of the suicide of his daughter Diana in 1963.

Mr. Jenkins does speculate on the relationship with Roosevelt and why he did not attend his funeral in 1945. However Jenkins is incorrect when he states that Roosevelt was “semi-comatose” during the Yalta conference in 1945.

Nevertheless this is very entertaining with a great deal of humour throughout. Churchill led an extraordinarily active life and the author captures the low points and the glorious ones when he became the beacon of the Western World.