His Father's Son: The Life of Randolph Churchill (Phoenix Giants) [Paperback]

Winston S. Churchill (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1997 | Series: Phoenix Giants

Randolph Churchill was the son of one of the worlds most remarkable political figures, Winston Churchill, of whom he wrote the first two volumes of what has become the standard biography. In his father's son Winston Churchill, the great politician's grandson, continues this family tradition by writing the lifeof his own father. Randolphs life spans a period unparalleled in world history for its dramatic events, above all for the suffewring of two generations confronted by the horror of world war. With honesty Winston S.Churchill conveys the many extradinary and outrageous facets of Randolph's character.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

"I am going to write a life of my father which is both filial and objective," Randolph Churchill once said of his planned great biography of Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and the same might have been said by his son, Winston S. Churchill. Randolph was spoiled, arrogant, undisciplined, and cruel when drunk (which was all too often). He was also insightful, courageous, generous, loyal, and a great political journalist. The author, who has written an excellent biography of a complex man, can be forgiven for stressing his father's intelligence and courage over his arrogance. This book will appeal to biography lovers as well as history buffs and Anglophiles with some knowledge of recent British history (Profumo, Suez, etc.). Though this is an admirable and informative work, libraries that own Brian Roberts's Randolph: A Study of Churchill's Son (1984) and The Grand Original, edited by Kay Halle (1971), need consider only if there is strong interest in the subject.?Elizabeth Mellett, Brookline P.L., Mass.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

A ``filial and objective'' biography of Winston S. Churchill's only son, Randolph, by Randolph's son. Randolph Churchill, named for a grandfather who was an important parliamentary leader in the 1880s, was born to Winston Churchill and his wife, Clementine, in London in 1911. Winston Churchill, who had been a soldier and a successful journalist, was already immersed in his brilliant political career at the time of Randolph's birth, and the early pages of this biography are a narrative of Winston Churchill's career as home secretary and first lord of the admiralty, including the catastrophic failure of the Gallipoli campaign, with which Winston, became identified, a tragedy that became indelibly imprinted on the small boy's memory. Randolph grew up in an atmosphere dominated by the powerful intellect and forceful personality of his father. Winston, for his part, tried his best to be the loving parent to Randolph that his own father had never been to him. Educated at Eton and Oxford, Randolph was, like his father, an indifferent student with evident gifts, but unlike Winston he developed habits of indolence and a quarrelsome, arrogant streak that marked his adult personality. Eventually he followed his father into politics and journalism; he had great success with the latter in the 1930s, but less with the former, failing three times as a Conservative candidate to achieve election to Parliament, but finally becoming MP from Preston as WW II neared. Having married Pamela Digby (later to be Mrs. Averell Harriman), he served in the war with the Desert Army and in the Balkans. After the war, he wrote numerous books, including two volumes of a well-regarded biography of his father. He died in 1968. Randolph's career is a historical footnote, but the author's close examination of his father's complex relationship with Winston Churchill, augmented with excerpts from their voluminous correspondence, make this a valuable contribution to Churchill scholarship. (30 b&w photos) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 525 pages
• Publisher: Trafalgar Square (September 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 185799969X
• ISBN-13: 978-1857999693
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,873,531 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Carries on the family biographical tradition, July 15, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: His Father's Son: The Life of Randolph Churchill (Hardcover)

This book carries on the family tradition of sons writing about fathers. The author's grandfather, the famous Prime Minister, had much earlier written a biography of his father, also named Randolph, which was generally poorly reviewed at the time and essentially constituted a glorification of the subject. The current work, which purports to be objective, reveals a startingly adventurous life, lived always within the shadow of the famous father. I think that objectivity is achieved (the author's father could be difficult, to way the least but was also generous to a fault and loyal regardless of consequences). The reader will be surprised at the many intellectual and other accomplishments of the subject of this biohgraphy. Toward the end of his life, Randolph was commissioned to write the Great Biography (about his famous father), and the period when he completed the first two volumes of this undertaking (Martin Gilbert finished the task) is particularly interesting.! ! The author's earliest recollections come into play in the second half of the book, which include a large number of historically significant individuals (of course, his famous grandfather, but many other British political luminaries as well). Churchill buffs will very much enjoy this book.