First Lady: The Life and Wars of Clementine Churchill

Great book! Very well written, interesting, incisive and a well researched book about the relationship of Winston and Clementine Churchill, a couple who always found "True North" in each other. Churchill, the greatest son of Britain, would have been a different man and history would have taken a different course without Clementine at his side.

Historians have mostly ignored Mrs. Churchill. The only biographer until now was her daughter Mary Soames. Purnell appears to have been fair minded and scrupulous in her biography. The book is well written and researched. There are lots of pictures to peruse.Purnell portrayed Clementine as a strong willed and ambitious woman who was a great support to Winston Churchill. The author, as well as many other historians, made it clear in the book that Winston Churchill was a difficult man to live with. They both were products of unstable marriages. Clementine’s mother was Lady Blanche Hosier and her husband was Colonel Henry Hosier but it is thought that Blanches, bother- in- law Lord Bertie Mitford was Clementine’s father. Blanche’s brother Lord Redesdale gave Clementine away at her wedding to Winston.The author says that it appears both were faithful to their marriage for over 60 years. Clementine had a flirtation with a man on a cruise one time when their marriage was at a rocky point but she says nothing was acted upon. Purnell quotes Winston fondly described an enraged Clemmie as “a jaguar dropping out of a tree.”Their mutual goal was the office of Prime Minister. Clementine had a genius both at patching up the wreckage caused by Winston’s bad decisions and at offering good advice. Clementine was a committed suffragist who unfailingly put her husband first. Their intimate relationship was crucially tested during the “wilderness years.” The Churchill’s thrived on the combination of crisis and chaos. Clementine volunteered for the job of rooftop fire watcher during WWII. She was respected for her humanitarian efforts on the home front and as a great First Lady during WWII.If you enjoy reading about the Churchill’s this is a must read book. I read the hardback edition; the book is 392 pages long and was published in 2015.

This book was fascinating in part because most books on this period were written by men. How Clementine put up with Winston will make you shake your head but she loved him and that made all the difference. She also liked being in the center of things during WWII. Well worth reading.

If you like history and especially world politics then this book is for you. Mrs. Clementine Churchill was a force of nature.Winston and Clementine were truly a team and Clementine's huge contributions during WWII are examined and brought forward in this book. Clementine Churchill was a Fierce First Lady.

Tiresome reading at times -- I found it slow, tho of course an interesting story.I just wasn't interested in plodding through so much detail.

Beautifully written, amusing, educational, easy to read - a good read

I bought this book primarily because I am fascinated by Winston Churchill. I will confess in many biographies I am bored to tears by the childhood years, which many biographers feel compelled to explore in order to be "complete". However, this book was beautifully written, and extremely well balanced. I have to come to appreciate Clementine (as does the author) after reading this book.

A well written biography with new insights into a period of history many of us are very familiar with.

This well written biography is a behind the scenes look at the marriage of Clementine and Winston before, during and after the war. By focusing on Clementine, Sonia Purnell gives us a different lense through which to see her husband. A wife devoting her life to her husband and his career is not a popular choice nowdays, but the book shows us how Clementine's support helped Winston to be the man he was. He might not have been able to save Europe from complete collapse (as he did in the first years of the war) had his outrageous brilliance, creativity, and self-belief not been trusted, nurtured, and buttressed by Clementine's unflagging support. She was the penultimate diplomat, and he was her country. Absorbing and thought provoking.

This is a fascinating well researched biography which really back up the old adage "behind every great man stands a great woman". Sonia Purnell really makes a case for Clementine's unusual political contribution as the wife of the Prime Minister, so that every time Winston Churchill is fêted as a great Briton (or, indeed, the greatest), perhaps it is their partnership which should be celebrated. Apart from this I was particularly interested to read about her relationship with her husband (which seemed to thrive on periods of separation) and her friendship with Eleanor Roosevelt.If you have an interest in Churchill, WWII in general, the time of women during the war or, more obviously, in Clementine - who was so much more than just Winston Churchill's wife, this is the book for you.

An excellent read, addictive almost impossible to put down. Full of fact and insight. Rich yet concise and unfussy in the detail. I have no hesitation in recommending this biography of one of the 20th century's most interesting yet unsung heroines.

I read a lot of books about Churchill and the crucial role he played in World War II in fighting the Germans , but never before I read about the fact that he had a soundboard, companion and ally in his wife Clementine - who was a great personality, a politically very clever and most unusual woman. Had she been born in the twenty-first century (or even in the second half of the twentieth), she might have been a great politician of her own. Living in the age she did, she chose to support her husband - and in doing so she not only shared the burden of her husband during two World Wars, but made it possible that he became the most decisive politician of the last century, who almost singel-handedly led Britain against all odds to victory over tyranny. Clementine Churchill was the living proof of the idea that behind every great man an even greater woman stands. Winston Churchill did not only offer his people blood, toil, tears and sweat, he also had his Clementine at h is side and theirs. Their marriage was the ultimate coalition: it certainly deserves this very well written, entertaining and thorough biography of an remarkable woman who chose a path in life that was very close to the ideals of the later feminist movement - although feminists might not see it that way. Highly recommended!

Terrible book. Sonia does an insipid job of capturing the characters of Winston and Clementine. The reader starts to hate them both almost from Chapter 2 onwards.