Working With Winston: The Unsung Women Behind Britain’s Greatest Statesman

Despite the subtitle suggesting a portrait of women workers, journalist Stelzer (Dinner With Churchill) actually offers up a revealing behind-the-scenes view of Winston Churchill as seen by mostly but not exclusively female secretaries, an unguarded Churchill “when not on stage, when not performing.” Utilizing oral histories conducted by the Churchill Archives in Cambridge, Stelzer devotes one chapter apiece to 12 employees’ duties and observations of the Churchills. The accounts of those employed before WWII—personal secretary Violet Pearman; Grace Hamblin, hired to assist with Churchill’s literary work; and nighttime secretary Kathleen Hill—establish Churchill as a hardworking author and public servant. Jo Sturdee and Marian Holmes, who both came on board during the war, provide lively stories about overseas travel in wartime (being followed by enemy submarines, eating decadent meals on board). Cecily Gemmell, Elizabeth Gilliatt, Lettice Marston, Jane Portal, Doreen Pugh, and Catherine Snelling, who were hired to manage an ever-burgeoning workload in the postwar period, recall Churchill’s declining health, still-active work schedule, and household occasions including birthdays and dinner parties. Stelzer concludes that Churchill was a man so committed to his work that he was “often insensitive to the needs of those around him,” but his secretaries regarded him as considerate, kind, even lovable. Readers seeking “unsung women” will not get what they came for, but Churchill devotees will delight in yet another view of the British leader. [em](May) [/em]