Chasing Churchill

Title: Chasing Churchill – The Travels of Winston Churchill
Author: Celia Sandys
Publisher: HarperCollins 2003 (First)
ISBN: 0-00-710263-1
Pages: 256

Winston Churchill’s grand daughter, Celia Sandys describes the travels her grand father made to various destinations across the globe in official and personal capacities. She retraced Churchill’s steps as far as possible and visited all those places, met people who remembered the presence of the British stalwart and stayed at those hotels where he had stayed decades back. All his travels are neatly catalogued under aptly labelled chapters. The authenticity of narration is superb, coming as it is from the former British Prime Minister’s grand daughter. Personal aspects of the travels are emphasized, bringing into fine detail the people he met, his relationships with them, personal quirks and interesting anecdotes which might not have found expression in history books. No official business is explained and even the general thread of history is not maintained.

Churchill was very fond of travelling, particularly to France and the U.S. He even commented late in his life that if he’d be born again, he wished it to be in the U.S. as he was so enamoured by the life style and opportunities that nation opened up for the young. He even referred Britain as his ‘other country’ while in the U.S. France presented itself over the artistic domain, as Churchill was no mean painter and his style borrowed heavily from extant French practice. He stayed there for improving his command of the French language, though there were no indications that it was improving. He always travelled in style, stayed at the most elegant premises, met with the most important people at the place and flouted rules and regulations at will. He smoked cigars even in the aircrafts of those times in which it was strictly banned. Once in Italy, he came to know that the train he intended to travel won’t stop at the nearby station. He asked his secretary to remember that he was Winston Churchill and instructed him to ask the station master to stop the train which was duly carried out! He drank freely while in U.S. where Prohibition was in place during one of his visits. Such scant disregard for rules is a curious paradox to be expected from the most widely known British statesman.

Churchill was a staunch imperialist and he vehemently opposed any move to grant more autonomy to the colonies. Extensive security arrangements has to be instituted for him in the U.S. in 1932 when Indian extremist elements were planning to assassinate him there for his objections to the proposals for granting India more freedom of government. During the second world war, President Roosevelt of the U.S. openly criticized France for keeping imperial possessions while herself conquered by the Germans. He strongly disapproved of such comments and promptly went out of the discussion to mark his disgust. Churchill was in India while in military service for about a year, but the book is practically silent on his travels in this country. May be the author found it worthless to pursue the thread in a country which was under the British yoke during that time. His unsympathetic attitude to India was further reflected when he was asked by an American journalist as to what he intended to do about those ‘wretched Indians’ to which Churchill replied as, “To which Indians do you refer? Those who under British rule have multiplied and prospered exceedingly, or do you mean the unfortunate Indians of the North American continent which under your administration are practically extinct?”

Undoubtedly a good book if you wanted to know the man behind the iron façade. Even the finest details of the entourage are given, but the international situation which pushed him to travel, are not mentioned. He made several hazardous journeys through dangerous terrain. He braved German warships and planes while pursuing international effort to isolate the axis powers. The book should’ve included some political background behind the numerous conferences which he attended in his official capacities. We can definitely pardon the author for unduly boosting up her grandfather’s image and in her accusations against those people who didn’t take Churchill’s opinions very seriously. He is credited with the idea of a unified Europe, though the evidence presented is scant and unconvincing.

A good book altogether and recommended for the not-so-serious reader.

Rating: 3 Star