Clementine Churchill - Tapa dura

Clementine, Lady Spencer-Churchill died in 1979, aged 92. Instantly recognizable as the seemingly serene, cool and derached wife of Winston Churchill she had nonetheless shunned publicity throughout her life. In this biography her daughter, Mary Soames, throws light on her mother, writing of Clementine's 57-year marriage to Winston, her strongly held political views and a life which spans many of the major events of the 20th century. Clementine Churchill was the perfect wife for Winston. For 75 years she supported him through the triumphs, disasters and tensions which ruled his public and private life. As a young girl she had a strength of character and distinction of mind, allied to outstanding good looks, that attracted the young and impetuous Winston Churchill. The early years of her marriage coincided with the heyday of the reforming Liberal Government, in which Winston was a leading figure: she was later to describe them as the happiest of her life. Always Winston trusted her completely and she became a valuable counsellor and companion. Clementine was shy, passionate and highly strung, and her self-control was tested to its utmost in the turmoil of public life and in the no less harrowing family crises and the ever-present financial anxieties. But one facet of her life was steadfast: the love she shared with her husband, which was to sustain them both even through the most trying times.

Mary Soames is the youngest and only surviving child of Winston and Clementine Churchill. She was born in 1922 and brought up at Chartwell in Kent. In 1941, aged eighteen, she joined the ATS and served in mixed anti-aircraft batteries in England and north-west Europe. She accompanied her father as his ADC on several of his wartime overseas journeys. In 1945 she was awarded the MBE (military). In 1947 she married Captain Christopher Soames, Coldstream Guards, later Lord Soames, PC, GCMG, CH. She has also written A Churchill Family Album, The Profligate Duke, Winston Churchill, His Life as a Painter and edited Speaking For Themselves the personal letters between Winston and Clementine Churchill.