cover image A Daughter’s Tale: 
The Memoir of Winston Churchill’s Youngest Child

A Daughter’s Tale: The Memoir of Winston Churchill’s Youngest Child

Mary Soames. Random, $28 (368p) ISBN 978-0-812-99333-2

Churchill’s youngest daughter (born in 1922) reflects on fond memories of the famous British prime minister and on her own role in a heavy antiaircraft battery unit during WWII. Soames (Clementine Churchill) remembers her doting father and socially distracted mother as she grew from much wanted baby into early adulthood, culminating in her wedding after previous short-lived engagements. Thanks to her personal diaries and unpublished letters, Soames recreates with specificity some amusing scenes, casually dropping names like Charlie Chaplin and Lawrence of Arabia, and also commenting on the great man who, while building his power structure in government, was unable to house-train the family’s beloved dog. Although occasionally overladen with daily monotony, Soames’s memoir presents a unique perspective on wartime Britain and her own desire to protect her precious Papa from political and personal attacks while strengthening her own character. 32 pages of photos. Agent: Jonathan Lloyd, Curtis Brown (U.K.). (July)