The Churchills

May 23, 2011
Lovell's previous biographical subjects, including Jane Digby and the Mitford sisters, connecting the upper classes of England and their long lists of lovers, mistresses, and scandals to the descendents of the Dukes of Marlborough, can now be seen as little more than preambles to her latest epic work. Preserving Blenheim, John Churchill's Oxfordshire palace built by a "grateful nation" has been the primary goal of the succeeding dukes over its 300-year history. But the Churchills were the first to take advantage of the "dollar princesses" by wedding American heiresses to preserve the immense and very expensive estate. Jenny Jerome did bring capital to her love match with Randolph, but his nephew, Sunny, the ninth duke, hit the jackpot with Consuelo Vanderbilt and her vast fortune. Alas, money and love don't always go hand in hand; few of the Ducal marriages were happy. While Lovell deals with each of the generations from the first Duke of Marlborough through present day, her focus is on Jennie Jerome Churchill and her son, Winston, thanks in part to the plentiful journals they kept. These subjects have been sufficient fodder for numerous biographies but Lovell (The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family) deftly sorts through the existing facts to create a well-researched and gossipy book.

April 1, 2011

Although the central character here may be Winston Churchill, British biographer Lovell (A Rage To Live: A Biography of Richard and Isabel Burton) essentially offers a popular biography of several members of the 19th- and 20th-century Churchill family, with less coverage beforehand on the earlier Churchills, such as the original Duke and Duchess of Marlborough. Lovell tends to be drawn to strong female characters, and her new book is no exception; she devotes significant attention to American heiresses Jennie Jerome (Winston Churchill's mother) and Consuelo Vanderbilt (his cousin by marriage). Lovell's writing style will keep general readers wanting more, and although the information on Churchill relatives is sometimes scandalous, her treatment of Winston Churchill himself is worshipful. All in all, Lovell delves into the personal rather than the political. Ending her coverage more or less with Winston's and then his wife Clementine's death, she uses mainly published sources to describe a remarkable family that was also quite ordinary in its dysfunction and foibles. VERDICT For a more political look at Winston Churchill, readers should turn to Geoffrey Best's Churchill: A Study in Greatness. Lovell's book is recommended to general readers, especially lovers of accessible historical biography, rather than Churchill specialists.--Maria Bagshaw, Ecolab, St. Paul

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2011
Popular biographer Lovell (The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family, 2001) descends upon the private lives of the denizens of Blenheim Palace, seat of the Dukes of Marlborough. Two reckless Randolphs in the Churchill family frame her narrative, the father of Britains WWII leader and his son, Randolph, off-line for the ducal title, who marries American money in the form of Jennie Jerome, whose fulsome romantic life has filled many a biography, as indeed have the lives of almost every figure Lovell introduces. More bucks enter Lovells drama when Winstons cousin, the ninth duke, contracts a remunerative but disastrous marriage with a Vanderbilt. Marital discord presides over Lovells chronicle, ever prodding scandal-savoring readers on to the next drunken row and divorce. Among these social storms, Winstons partnership with Clementine Hozier stands out as an affectionate anomaly. Not that their children learned by example. Randolph fils drinks, gambles, and alienates his wife (the future Pamela Harriman). His equals in unhappiness are his sisters in their serial matches. Famous lives ever fascinate, and does Lovell ever deliver.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)