Winston and the Windsors: How Churchill Shaped a Royal Dynasty by Andrew Morton
On May 8, 1945, Londoners celebrating V-E Day gathered outside Buckingham Palace, hoping to see the royal family. The royals duly obliged, appearing on the balcony that afternoon. Smack in the middle, however, was an interloper—Prime Minister Winston Churchill, smoking his trademark cigar. The scene was symbolic of how Churchill had wormed his way in among the Windsors. As Andrew Morton writes, he had become “almost as much a symbol of constitutional monarchy as the … monarch.”
Morton is a journalist with a taste for sensation. He’s previously written blockbuster biographies, most notoriously of Princess Diana. Here he takes on a weightier topic, namely Britain during a turbulent time of war and royal scandal. He responds admirably to the weight of responsibility; this is a surprisingly sober book. It nevertheless seems to have been written for those in awe of both Winston and the Windsors.
