Churchill and Me by Jonathan Dudley: book review

Churchill and Me: A Memoir of Childhood 1944-1950 (2017) is set in the English countryside of Kent.

Jonathan Dudley is eight years old in 1949 when his classmate, Winston, whom he hardly knows, invites him to spend a 10-day summer holiday in Kent at his grandfather’s place.

Winston’s father is Randolph Churchill (1911-1968), and Winston’s grandfather is Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill (1874-1965), the former British wartime Prime Minister from 1940-1945 and Conservative Party leader, who led the country to victory during the Second World War. He will become Prime Minister again from 1951-1955. He will also win the Nobel Prize for literature in 1953.

In 1949 Winston Churchill was entering the campaign period, for an upcoming election in six months time, as leader of the Conservative Party in opposition. He was 74 years old.

During the summer holiday Winston Churchill gave a live BBC broadcast to the nation from his painting studio in Chartwell House. The boys, young Winston and Jonathan, agreed to be ‘very good’ and make ‘no sound at all’ so that they could attend.

The boys always attended lunch with Churchill, despite him having guests such as the Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies.

After Jonathan’s ‘most successful visit to Chartwell’ Mrs Clementine Churchill (little Winston’s grandmother) invited Jonathan back the following year, in 1950, after Winston Churchill’s election defeat. In the family’s own private cinema at Chartwell House, they watched films such as Pride and Prejudice.

This is a short memoir in an easy-to-read style about the innocence of boyhood in the presence of greatness. Recalling the time 60 years after the event of the two summers at Chartwell, Jonathan Dudley’s memories are somewhat faded. However, the memoir provides a different perspective of the Prime Minister, and his relationship with his family, in all its British decorum, but also in its tenderness and poignancy.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

Comments

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. That

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass

Sister cities discussed: Canberra and Islamabad

Two months ago, in March 2015, Australia and Pakistan agreed to explore ways to deepen ties. The relationship between Australia and Pakistan has been strong for decades, and the two countries continue to keep dialogues open. The annual bilateral discussions were held in Australia in March to continue engagements on a wide range of matters of mutual interest. The Pakistan delegation discussed points of interest will include sports, agriculture, economic growth, trade, border protection, business, and education. The possible twinning of the cities of Canberra, the capital of Australia, and Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, were also on the agenda (i.e. called twin towns or sister cities). Sister City relationships are twinning arrangements that build friendships as well as government, business, culture, and community linkages. Canberra currently has international Sister City relationships with Beijing in China and Nara in Japan. One example of existing

FEAST OR FAMINE

Search This Blog