My Darling Winston: The Letters Between Winston Churchill and His Mother

Lough (No More Champagne) curates the correspondence between Winston Churchill and his American-born socialite mother, Jennie Jerome, in this nostalgic collection. The letters span from 1881, when a five-year-old Winston writes “I am so glad you are coming to see us,” to Jerome’s death in 1921, covering many of Churchill’s life milestones: experience as a soldier in India, time as a prisoner of war, election to Parliament, rise to home secretary, and exploits in politics and the military during WWI. Churchill’s missives shed light on his personality as a young child and a truculent teen, and include “passages of self-analysis that [give] valuable... insight into his character”; Jerome’s reveal a dynamic woman leveraging limited agency in a sexist society and also show the parenting dynamics of the time (in one letter, she laments, of her then-22-year-old son, “You seem to have no real purpose in life”). There are a few editorial missteps: some contextual interludes tell exactly what the ensuing letters will say, and sections forego strict chronological presentation, confusing the timeline. But readers who enjoy piecing together history and filling in gaps from primary evidence, as well as historians and Churchill enthusiasts, will find much of interest. Agent: Andrew Lownie, Andrew Lownie Literary (U.K.). (Oct.)