Jennie: The Life of the American Beauty Who Became the Toast—and Scandal—of Two Continents, Ruled an Age and Raised a Son—Winston Churchill—Who Shaped History
Ralph G. Martin
Language: English
Pages: 643
ISBN: 2:00292997
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Jennie Churchill was not merely Winston's mother. She was the most captivating and desired woman of her age. Originally from Brooklyn, Jennie became the reigning queen of British society. Beautiful and defiant, she lived with an honesty that made her the talk of two continents.
Sir Martin Gilbert, official biographer of Winston Churchill, writes that Jennie is, "a master work" that "pulses with energy as the author leads us from her cradle to relatively early grave, at the age of sixty-seven, of a woman who finally emerges—under his guiding hand—from the shadow of being a great man's mother, to being a woman in her own right."
the Prince of Wales dropped in. By that time, Prince Edward was very stout, and his tight clothes emphasized his girth. He had cut down on his drinking, but not on his eating. One critic had started calling him “Spuds,” insisting that his head looked an enormous potato ready for the pot. His tremendous hands, his outsize nose and ears, and his large gray codfish eyes hardly helped dispel the Spuds impression. But he was nonetheless an impressive man, whose full beard and mustache and
Army. Winston’s opinion of Kitchener was no higher. “He may be a general—but never a gentleman,” he commented to his mother. Writing to Jack, Jennie remarked: “Of course, he talks like that about the sirdar, but only to me, I think—He wouldn’t be so silly as to air his views in public. From the sirdar’s point of view, I daresay he is right—I had hoped W wd. have made friends with him & that is the best way of clipping your enemy’s claws… .”6 Winston soon would be returning to London, and the
promising capitalist, booming in every direction, suddenly was in financial trouble. He had been swindled by a glib lawyer who left him 8,000 pounds in debt. The Duke of Westminster wrote to Winston on August 19, 1906: … I hear you & your brother Jack have between you come to his aid. I would have helped before I left if there hadn’t been some misunderstanding between us. I send you enclosed cheque to be used on condition that George should not know of this transaction till I choose, if ever,
get plows cheaper than my country can produce them, cheaper even than the country of my origin can produce them, I say, ‘Dump on, dump on,’ and damned be he who first cries, ‘Hold, enough!’ ” 9 November 10, 1895. 10 November 12, 1895. 11 November 10, 1895. 12 November 15, 1895. 13 Ibid. 14 November 10, 1895. 15 Letter to Jack, November 15, 1895; letter dated November 10, 1895. 16 Letter to Jack, November 15, 1895. In this same letter, Winston also wrote of American
wore scratchy paper collars and preachers denounced baseball as a game for oafs and “ill-mannered persons.” Harlem was a quiet suburb and the Bronx was considered countryside; a skyscraper was a building twelve stories high. But most people worked a twelve-hour day, six days a week, for an average of ten dollars, and many worked longer for less. Even a short illness spelled family disaster, and a father’s death often meant orphanages for the children. Immigrants jammed the slums, each national