LWVCC Book Club Discussed "Clementine: The Life of Mrs Winston Churchill" Apr 12

LWVCC Book Club. April 12,  7:00 pm – 8:15 pm, Champaign Public Library. This quarter's  book is Clementine: The Life of Mrs. Winston Churchill.  The meeting is open to the public. and will be moderated by League member Annette Lansford.  Attendees who so wish may sit at the back of the room wearing masks. Those who feel comfortable in a public setting will be able to sit closer to the discussion. 

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About the book: This book is the first formal biography- apart from an account written by the Churchill's’ daughter Mary Soames- of Clementine. Born into one of Scotland’s most distinguished aristocratic families, she showed great academic promise, but was pushed into society by her mother who was left with a lack of fortune after an acrimonious divorce from Clementine’s father....Driven by her own insecurities, she made his career her mission. Clementine was a mass of contradictions: starchy yet emotional, crisp and almost sharp, sometimes loving and caring but occasionally cold and harsh, steely disciplined and perfectionistic but given to bouts of self doubt and depression. Better informed that many cabinet ministers, Clementine was an invaluable ally in her husband’s rise to power.. and frequently guided Winston in his interactions with other important figures, including Franklin Roosevelt, in WW2.

About the author: Sonia Purnell is a biographer and journalist who has worked at The Economist, The Telegraph and The Sunday Times. She was fortunate enough to have at her disposal a biographer’s gold mine of written correspondence between Clementine and Winston Churchill, notes that they exchanged constantly.

The book club previously read Sonia Purnell’s book A Woman of No Importance.