About the Author

Sir Winston Churchill led Britain through the Second World War as Prime Minister. He was the author of 42 books, including the four-volume History of the

Reviews

Here is another sad tale of a large talent enormously overshadowed by a dynamic father. The great prime minister apparently expected more from Randolph (1911-1968) than his only son could deliver. Yet after a failed career in politics, Randolph went on to become a much-read, much-feared political journalist. At the end he was also the biographer of the first two volumes of what would be an eight-volume biography of his father (completed by Martin Gilbert). In the Churchill tradition, as Sir Winston had written a life of his own politician father, Lord Randolph Churchill, the contemporary Winston‘a political journalist himself and a member of parliament‘has written a substantial and admiring, though candid, biography of his father. Although Randolph, who died of alcoholism, was often ingenious, courageous, generous and prescient, he was also, from his schooldays, wayward and rebellious. Sparing little, his son has evoked a tempestuous, abusive personality, often unlikable but seldom dull. The father-son perspective adds a poignancy that would have been difficult for another biographer. Photos. (June)

"I am going to write a life of my father which is both filial and objective," Randolph Churchill once said of his planned great biography of Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and the same might have been said by his son, Winston S. Churchill. Randolph was spoiled, arrogant, undisciplined, and cruel when drunk (which was all too often). He was also insightful, courageous, generous, loyal, and a great political journalist. The author, who has written an excellent biography of a complex man, can be forgiven for stressing his father's intelligence and courage over his arrogance. This book will appeal to biography lovers as well as history buffs and Anglophiles with some knowledge of recent British history (Profumo, Suez, etc.). Though this is an admirable and informative work, libraries that own Brian Roberts's Randolph: A Study of Churchill's Son (1984) and The Grand Original, edited by Kay Halle (1971), need consider only if there is strong interest in the subject.‘Elizabeth Mellett, Brookline P.L., Mass.