January 30

A Daughter's Tale: The Memoir of Winston and Clementine Churchill's Youngest Child
By Mary Soames

Mary Churchill Soames writes mainly of the war years (1939-1945), but also of her childhood, growing up at Chartwell.  She writes of her father (and all her family) with such warmth that I admire Winston Churchill (considered the greatest Brit of the 20th century) all the more, knowing how little he was loved and regarded by his own father (who had died of syphilis at age 45).  Mary was the last child of Winston and Clementine, born after the death of her sister Marigold.  She served with a gunner's brigade, based mostly in the UK, and often was assigned to accompany her father, who served as Prime Minister through the war.   Like her famous father and grandmother, she also writes well.  After reading of the fascinating but dysfunctional mother of WSC, it's a joy to read his daughter's account.

Mary married Christopher Soames, a military officer and conservative politician in 1947.  She died in 1914 at age 91.