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A Daughter's Tale: The Memoir of Winston Churchill's Youngest Child Hardcover – 24 July 2012

by Mary Soames (Author)
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In this charming and intimate memoir, Winston Churchill’s youngest daughter shares stories from her remarkable life—and tells of the unbreakable bond she forged with her father through some of the most tumultuous years in British history.

Now approaching her ninetieth birthday, Mary Soames is the only surviving child of Winston and Clementine Churchill. Through a combination of personal reminiscences and never-before-published diary entries, she describes what it was like growing up as the scion of one of the lions of twentieth-century statecraft. Warm memories of a childhood spent roaming the grounds of the family’s country estate, tending to a small menagerie of pets, evoke the idyllic mood of England between the wars. As she matures into one of her father’s most trusted companions, we are given rare glimpses inside the glittering social milieu through which the Churchills moved—as well as the rough-and-tumble world of British politics. With fly-on-the-wall immediacy, Mary describes the momentous debate in Parliament where Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was driven from office, paving the way for Winston Churchill’s ascension and the grueling crucible of World War II.

During the war Mary served as a gunner in the women’s auxiliary, helping to shoot down the German V-1 rockets then bedeviling London. Styling herself as Private M. Churchill to avoid publicity, she led a unique double life that comes vividly alive again in the retelling. Splitting her time between luncheons at Chequers—where she spent time with the likes of Lord Mountbatten—and the turret of an anti-aircraft battery, she was never far from the center of the action. Hitler even reportedly hatched a plan, never consummated, to hire spies to seduce her in order to gain access to secret British war plans. She attended the Potsdam Conference as her father’s aide-de-camp, arranging a memorable dinner with Harry Truman and Josef Stalin (whom she acidly remembers as “small, dapper, and rather twinkly”). And when British voters overwhelmingly turned on Churchill in the 1945 election, it is left to Mary to recount the pain and devastation her father could never publicly express.

The mutual love and affection between Mary Soames and her parents pours forth from every page of this elegantly written memoir.A Daughter’s Tale is both a moving personal history and a source of untold insight into one of the enduring icons of British national life.
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  1. Print length
    356 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Random House Inc
  4. Publication date
    24 July 2012
  5. Dimensions
    16.79 x 3.45 x 24.26 cm
  6. ISBN-10
    0812993330
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0812993332
  8. See all details
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Product description

About the Author

Mary Soames is the youngest and only surviving child of Winston and Clementine Churchill. She was born in 1922 and brought up at Chartwell in Kent. In 1941, at age eighteen, she joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service and served in mixed anti-aircraft batteries in England and Europe. She accompanied her father as his aide-de-camp on several of his wartime overseas journeys. In 1945 she was awarded the MBE (military). In 1947 she married Captain Christopher Soames, Coldstream Guards, later Lord Soames, PC, GCMG, CH. She is also the author of her mother's biography, Clementine Churchill, and editedSpeaking for Themselves, the personal letters between her parents.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Random House Inc (24 July 2012)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 356 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0812993330
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0812993332
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 16.79 x 3.45 x 24.26 cm
  • Customer reviews:

About the author

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Mary Soames

Mary Soames

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Mary Soames (1922-2014) was born Mary Spencer-Churchill, the youngest of Winston Churchill and his wife Clementine's five children. Her wartime diaries are collected in Mary Churchill’s War, edited by her daughter, Emma Soames.

Mary Soames also wrote an acclaimed biography of her mother, Clementine Churchill (first published in 1979) and edited Speaking for Themselves, a collection of the personal letters between Winston and Clementine Churchill. Her memoir A Daughter’s Tale was published in 2011, three years before her death.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
186 global ratings

Top review from United Kingdom

helencareybooks
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting memoir
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 June 2021
Verified Purchase
Very interesting to see events from the perspective of Churchill's daughter.
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Top reviews from other countries

Hawk
5.0 out of 5 stars Good Read
Reviewed in the United States on 15 February 2024
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Interesting with little-known facts.
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Marie Lussier
5.0 out of 5 stars Other time but so wonderful to relive them!
Reviewed in Canada on 5 January 2013
Verified Purchase
What a remarkable story and so beautifiully told - I only with the book was twice as long, i.e. giving twice as many details about her life. I have read, and will read again, the book she wrote about her mother Clementine. I read it many years ago.
One person found this helpful
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LB
5.0 out of 5 stars The Churchill Family During WW II
Reviewed in the United States on 10 February 2021
Verified Purchase
This is one of my favorite books of all time! It is a biography of the Churchill Family during WW II, written well by their youngest daughter, Mary Churchill Soames. She still lived with her parents so had an up close viewpoint of his war decisions, their marriage and travels, making alliances with FDR, et al, disappointments in Winston's career, London during the Blitz, and much more. I was hoping for a second book, either before or after this period. If it is out-of-print, it should be reprinted.
3 people found this helpful
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dp
5.0 out of 5 stars a nice surprise gift for my husband
Reviewed in Canada on 19 August 2012
Verified Purchase
Many great pictures enjoyed by my husband, a W. Churchill admirer, and very well done by M. Soames who has also produced another great book on Churchill as a painter. Full of interesting little details. And thank you Amazon for, as always, your very efficient services. dp
2 people found this helpful
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M. Miller
4.0 out of 5 stars Pretty good, but...
Reviewed in the United States on 13 February 2024
Verified Purchase
Good transaction but with one exception: I feel a book's 'corners' are always going to suffer in transportation, UNLESS it comes wrapped to protect those corners [bubble wrap, etc.]. This arrived wrapped only in a thin plastic wrap.
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