Walter Olson
Meticulously detailed on figures like the ever fascinating Churchill daughter-in-law Pamela Harriman, Lovell softens her focus when it comes to the great man himself. Drink and depression remain mostly offstage. Nor does she probe how the clan’s absentee approach to child rearing might have related to the unhappy adult life of three of Winston and Clementine’s four grown children. Lovell steers even farther clear of the revisionist literature on both the left and the libertarian right that paints Churchill as a warmonger and political opportunist.
—The New York Times Book Review
Publishers Weekly
Lovell's previous biographical subjects, including Jane Digby and the Mitford sisters, connecting the upper classes of England and their long lists of lovers, mistresses, and scandals to the descendents of the Dukes of Marlborough, can now be seen as little more than preambles to her latest epic work. Preserving Blenheim, John Churchill's Oxfordshire palace built by a "grateful nation" has been the primary goal of the succeeding dukes over its 300-year history. But the Churchills were the first to take advantage of the "dollar princesses" by wedding American heiresses to preserve the immense and very expensive estate. Jenny Jerome did bring capital to her love match with Randolph, but his nephew, Sunny, the ninth duke, hit the jackpot with Consuelo Vanderbilt and her vast fortune. Alas, money and love don't always go hand in hand; few of the Ducal marriages were happy. While Lovell deals with each of the generations from the first Duke of Marlborough through present day, her focus is on Jennie Jerome Churchill and her son, Winston, thanks in part to the plentiful journals they kept. These subjects have been sufficient fodder for numerous biographies but Lovell (The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family) deftly sorts through the existing facts to create a well-researched and gossipy book. (May)
Los Angeles Times - Wendy Smith
"Intelligent and well-written…Lovell weaves together all the anecdotes so seamlessly, and it’s such fun to read."
Booklist - Gilbert Taylor
"Famous lives ever fascinate, and does Lovell ever deliver."
Boston Sunday Globe
"Deliciously gossipy history of Britain’s unofficial royals."
Country Life
"This book is more a human story than plain history…[Lovell] has done an admirable job in weaving [the Churchills’ stories] all together to create a splendid saga."
From the Publisher
"Lovell's writing style will keep [listeners] wanting more." ---Library Journal
Library Journal
Although the central character here may be Winston Churchill, British biographer Lovell (A Rage To Live: A Biography of Richard and Isabel Burton) essentially offers a popular biography of several members of the 19th- and 20th-century Churchill family, with less coverage beforehand on the earlier Churchills, such as the original Duke and Duchess of Marlborough. Lovell tends to be drawn to strong female characters, and her new book is no exception; she devotes significant attention to American heiresses Jennie Jerome (Winston Churchill's mother) and Consuelo Vanderbilt (his cousin by marriage). Lovell's writing style will keep general readers wanting more, and although the information on Churchill relatives is sometimes scandalous, her treatment of Winston Churchill himself is worshipful. All in all, Lovell delves into the personal rather than the political. Ending her coverage more or less with Winston's and then his wife Clementine's death, she uses mainly published sources to describe a remarkable family that was also quite ordinary in its dysfunction and foibles. VERDICT For a more political look at Winston Churchill, readers should turn to Geoffrey Best's Churchill: A Study in Greatness. Lovell's book is recommended to general readers, especially lovers of accessible historical biography, rather than Churchill specialists.—Maria Bagshaw, Ecolab, St. Paul
