Jennie Churchill: Winston's American Mother

When I was a girl in the early seventies my mother told me I had to remain a virgin till my wedding day but that after I'd had my children an `extramarital affair was quite in order, if needs must, provided it was conducted with absolute discretion.' Even then this felt like maternal advice handed down the generations, but by the end of the decade it was hopelessly out of date. This heavenly biography of Jennie Churchill allowed me all the vicarious pleasure (and pain) of living a life which, with just a tweak of history, might have been mine.

Of course, I have neither the beauty nor radiant charm of Anne Sebba's heroine, but for the last three weeks I have been living through her (to the extent of now being utterly exhausted!) in the same way as I might reading a great novel. Jennie was reputed to have had two hundred lovers, yet her discretion was such that only a dozen or so can be verified. An aphorism of the day was cache ton jeu, and so good was she at 'hiding her game' that despite a three year period in which she regularly entertained the Prince of Wales while her husband was away - private lunches, afternoons and teas - there is nothing in the numerous notes they exchanged to suggest they were actually having an affair.

Nonetheless, her physicality, her love of being beautiful (though paradoxically, without vanity) her love and expectation of being desired, run through her life. Her second and third husbands were twenty years younger than she was, both famous for their good looks, but Jennie, first in her forties and then in her sixties, manages to `capture' them with her physical allure. She observes (but does not bemoan) the day she walked into a room and was no longer the most beautiful woman there.

But if this smacks of self-love, Jennie evokes sympathy and admiration a hundred times more than irritation. Her first husband, Randolph Churchill, was clearly bored by her soon after their marriage, but Jennie's love of him and yearning for that love to be reciprocated is painful. When Randolph's political life ends ignominiously and his health flounders (probably from syphilis he contracted as a student), she stands by him to the end.

But whereas Randolph never lives up to her expectations of him and in some important sense fails her, in her son, Winston, Jennie can finally flourish. She is so convinced of his star that as he sets out in life she pulls every string she can, introducing him to anyone and everyone whom she considers politically astute and can help him on his way. Even when Winston himself is thrown out of the cabinet during the First World War, and volunteers to go to the Front, she never seems anxious that he will die so convinced is she of his ultimate destiny. She feels instinctively that Winston cannot err, and that faith in him is transmuted, without doubt, into Winston's faith in himself. She never lived to see Winston become `the greatest Briton' but there is no doubt in this reader's mind that she planted the seed.

A dazzling review (2/2 people found this helpful)

It has ben a while since I enjoyed a biography as much as I enjoyed
Anne Sebba's Jennie Churchill. It's written in the tradition of the
great biographies with punctilious attention to facts and to detail,
and at the same time with wonderful verve and panache, perfectly suited
to the fairytale life of Jennie Jerome, one of a veritable army of
American heiresses who sailed to Europe in the hopes of hooking an
English Lord or a Crown Prince of a minor European principality. Jennie
was the Grace Kelly of her day, dazzlingly beautiful and with a proud
and independent personality. Her marriage to Lord Randolph Churchill
was, by and large, unhappy - tragically unhappy and he died prematurely
of syphilis. But, and it is a big but, Jennie and Lord Randolph
produced a son and heir, Winston Spencer Churchill who was and is
considered one of the greatest men in our country's history.
The subtitle of this biography is 'Winston's American mother' and Anne
Sebba has painted a fascinating picture of the relationship between
mother and son which is essential to any understanding of Winston the
man and the leader. A good read.

A glorious biography (2/2 people found this helpful)

History tends to give short schrift to the mothers of great men. If they're mentioned at all, they tend to be portrayed as self-sacrificing angels who give their all for the sake of their child. Not so Jennie Churchill, the American mother of one of our greatest of great men: Winston Churchill. Jennie, as the excellent photographs in the book show, was a great beauty - spirited, fearless, proud, intelligent and absolutely determined to live life on her own terms, traits which her reputedly Native American blood only served to strengthen. Born in New York into a family of great self-made wealth, Jennie moved with her mother to Paris where she became intimate with the glittering court of the Emporer Napoleon III. It was as if her parents were preparing her to claim her birthright and marry into the European aristocracy, as many American heiresses were doing, bringing new blood and pots of gold to to a tired an impoverished ruling class. Jennie met Lord Randolph Churchill in the Isle of Wight and after a whirlwind courtship of just three days was engaged to this younger son of the the great warrior dukedom of Marlborough. Why they became engaged, and how they managed to marry in the teeth of family opposition, misunderstandings and assorted mishaps remains a mystery. What is clear is that there was an overwhelming, overpowering sexual attraction between them which resulted in Winston Churchill, their first son, being conceived out of wedlock. (It is interesting to speculate what would have happened to the course of modern British history had Jennie Jerome and Lord Randolph Churchill not met, let alone married and produced Winston.) I came to this biography as an admirer of Winston Churchill: although Jennie has been dealt with in biogrpahies of Churchill, these portraits of Jennie have been just that - broad-stroke, rather clichéed images of her. In this remarkable biography, Anne Sebba has scultped a flesh and blood, warts and all, life of Jennie - a life remarkable for its gaities and its miseries, its joys and its sorrow. Jennie's marriage to Randolph was less than happy, complicated by the chilliness and hostility of the Churchill family and, more profoundly, by the slow decline and death from syphilis of Lord Randolph Churchill. Anne Sebba has uncovered remarkable new eveidence form notes made by Randolph's doctors and presented a scrupulously fair and impartial examination of the evidence for and against a diagnosis of syphilis. Jennie Jerome never lost her appetie for pleasure and for men. One of the great strengths of this biography is the way it manages to capture the spirit of Jennie and the sprit of the age in all its reckless extravagances and self-indulgences, in its manifold follies and appalling injustices. This book is that most elusive of creatures: a scholarly and serious biography which is also a thrilling and riveting read. Glorious!

a remarkable woman (1/1 people found this helpful)

JENNIE CHURCHILL: Winston's American Mother by Anne Sebba.
This book did my insomnia no good, keeping me glued to the page long after I should have put the light out. The author has digested and organised an awesome amount of archival and other research material while maintaining a clear, compelling narrative line throughout.
This is the biography of a spirited, beautiful and intelligent American heiress (Jamesian associations come to mind) who left for Europe and married into the Engish aristocracy, first to Lord Randolph Churchill,
a relationship that failed and ended with his death.

A tireless social networker (some would say climber), her ambitions concentrated less on herself than on launching and furthering the career of her son Winston. Married three times, attracting countless lovers, spending profligately and falling into debt, she also pursued
intellectual interests, founding and editing a literary magazine. This in itself marked her out as exceptional among the women of her class at that time.

Sebba is good at the wrenching as well as triumphant moments in Jennie'e life, perhaps the most memorable being her account of a cruise voyage towards the end of Randolph's life as he lay in his cabin, physically and mentally wrecked, alternating between clarity and madness. Sebba makes one feel for them both in this portrait of a
remarkable woman.
H.R. (London, England)

Jennie Churchill: Winston's American Mother

Anne Sebba

Reader Reviews:

Jennie Churchill A wonderful book (3/3 people found this helpful)

A dazzling review (2/2 people found this helpful)

A glorious biography (2/2 people found this helpful)

a remarkable woman (1/1 people found this helpful)

Similar Products

Categories