July 1, 2013
Shelden (Mark Twain; The Lost Generation) presents a detailed, well-researched look at Winston Churchill from age 26 to 40 (1901-15), including his entry into national politics and meteoric rise to political power, shifting parties from Conservative to Liberal, and fast fall from grace as First Lord of the Admiralty with the Dardanelles disaster. Shelden explores the eagerness and ambition of the young man coming into his own as he takes on the best and brightest political figures of his day. Glimpses of Churchill's personal life include his friendships and family interactions, plus his pursuit of several beauties, the rejections by three women of his marriage proposals, and eventually finding a good match with the fourth and becoming a loving husband and father. John Curless's British accents are perfect and add a rich dimension to this biography. VERDICT Highly Recommended. ["Ted Morgan's Churchill: Young Man in a Hurry, 1874-1915 was published over 30 years ago. Shelden takes into account the Churchill literature that has appeared since then and focuses further on the profound impact losing his cabinet position had on the man. This deserves its rightful place on libraries' groaning Churchill shelves," read the review of the S. & S. hc, LJ 4/1/13.--Ed.]--Scott R. DiMarco, Mansfield Univ. of Pennsylvania Lib.
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November 19, 2012
This portrait of the pol as a young man tracks Churchill’s coming-of-age from 1901, when he first entered Parliament, to 1915, when he resigned as First Lord of the Admiralty following the Gallipoli fiasco, with much personal material included. Shelden, a journalist, professor, and author of biographies of Mark Twain and George Orwell (the latter, Orwell, was a finalist for the Pulitzer), reveals a Churchill who early on was well known as a Boer War hero; an adventurer in India, Cuba, and Egypt; a prolific writer; and a member of Parliament. For someone of aristocratic background, Churchill held relatively progressive views, favoring women’s suffrage and helping push for unemployment insurance. His personal charm and wit attracted numerous women, including the American actress Ethel Barrymore and Prime Minister Asquith’s daughter, Violet, before he married Clementine Hozier at age 32. Shelden hews close to the man, his family and friends, and his policies; as a result, national and international concerns (as when he refers to Germany’s pre-1914 “continuing preparation for war” without offering further explanation) are given short shrift. Despite this and occasional trivial digressions, the book is a fluid and informative examination of the early career of one of modern Britain’s most outstanding political leaders. 16 pages of b&w photos.