Any Winston Churchill fan knows how much he loved Chartwell, his longtime home in southeast England. From 1922, when he bought it after the run-down house had failed to sell at auction, until his death in 1965, Churchill used the place as his refuge, giving him peace and solace in times both good and bad. Katherine Carter focuses on the years before the war, when Churchill spent much time in the political wilderness and used Chartwell as his base to curry support and entertain visitors such as Albert Einstein and T. E. Lawrence.
This riveting book is a triple history, one of Churchill the man, one about the gathering storms before 1939, and one about a house whose walls, if they could talk, would transfix you for hours. The author has a wonderful style, breezy yet authoritative, and where else would you learn that the famed “Lawrence of Arabia” would entertain the children on his visit by wearing his ivory silk robes from his heroic days of the Arab Revolt, but then, having failed to bring a dinner jacket, wore an outfit owned by Churchill? “He made a marvellous sight, looking so very small and lost,” wrote one guest. “His hands and feet could not be seen … the cuffs dangling in his soup.”
This is a jewel of a book, slim and beautifully produced, that showcases the work of Susan Brind Morrow, a noted classicist and naturalist who is an equally accomplished poet and artist. There is so much to savor here, and the reader is amply rewarded by repeat readings, providing a restful meditation during these harsh times. A favorite is “Color in the Bahamas,” where there are “blue plum-bottomed clouds/stacked up high and gleaming/over the smooth water,” and where the “metal-green hummingbird” and “inca doves with rust red wings” are seen “all in the lemon-colored light of late evening/until the clouds blot it away.”
Some folks prefer their history told in chunky volumes that survey wars or political movements or eras, and others favor books that explore in detail particular incidents that may not have garnered headlines at the time but are nonetheless utterly fascinating. No matter what camp you are in, do not miss this enthralling book, which tells how a group of Soviet botanists at the world’s first seed bank got trapped in the siege of Leningrad during World War II and faced this challenge during a blockade that eventually claimed the lives of three-quarters of a million people, most of them from starvation: save the more than 250,000 samples stored in a converted palace, or eat the collection to save themselves.
Behind the collective decision are tales of treachery, sacrifice, and, yes, starvation, and Simon Parkin is that rare writer who is a prodigious researcher who can spin his findings into narrative gold. It is Parkin’s singular gift that the reader feels right beside him as he uncovers his tale, a tale that he pursues to present-day St. Petersburg.
Jim Kelly is the Books Editor at AIR MAIl