The Private Lives of Winston Churchill by John Pearson

Author:John Pearson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2013-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

22

Psychic Dynamite

“My dear Maxine!” Churchill exclaimed, descending from the limousine that had brought him and a mountain of luggage from the station. He smiled at his old friend the vast Miss Elliot, the rich and famous American ex-actress who, despite considerable losses on the stock market, was still maintaining open house at the Château de l’Horizon near Cannes.

It was early August 1933. Parliament was safely in recess, and for a few weeks peace reigned in the increasingly bitter battle Churchill was still waging against change in India despite the hostility of Stanley Baldwin and isolation from his party.

As he began his holiday in this most luxurious of villas, with its scented gardens and its view across the bay, he could also briefly forget the threat of German rearmament, which was concerning him as well. He had brought his paints and the final proofs of the first volume of his life of Marlborough to keep him occupied.

With no ministerial income for the last four years, and having long since spent the Marlborough advance, he was again short of money. But staying with Miss Elliot cost those fortunate enough to be invited very little. Several of his family would soon be joining him, and as a personal sacrifice to their current economy campaign, he had boldly decided not to bring his valet, a hazardous experiment. Rather to his surprise, it seemed to work.

“You have no idea how easy it is to travel without a servant,” he told his hostess. “I came away from London alone and it was quite simple.”

“Winston, how brave of you,” she replied.

Miss Elliot was a lion hunter and a considerable snob. “Always remember dear,” she told her niece, “that a Lord is that much better than anybody else”—and that year her house was full of gilded lions, including the Duke of Sutherland, Viscount Ratendone, Lady Castlerosse, and other representatives of the international smart set. Less gilded, but more decorative, was a promising young actor named Peter Willes, whom Miss Elliot had recently befriended.

Willes was just nineteen, and it is interesting that this member of the younger generation who had grown up since the war had little real idea who Churchill was. It is also interesting that, unlike serious young Maurice Ashley, he instantly disliked him. Willes found Churchill “bullying and overbearing” when they met.

“At meals he just banged on and on, regardless of anybody else’s interests or desire to talk; and if you weren’t deeply involved in politics—and I wasn’t—he was really a most dreadful bore. All he seemed to do was smoke cigars, eat, drink, and talk far more than anybody else, and never give a damn what anybody thought about him.”

While this was an uncomfortable experience for Willes, it was not the end of contact with the Churchills. Randolph arrived, and Willes found him even more objectionable than he found Winston—particularly when he threw his considerable weight about and attempted—unsuccessfully—to bully Miss Elliot into giving him Willes’s bedroom. Then Clementine arrived with Sarah, and Willes was captivated—particularly by Clementine.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.