Chasing Churchill: The Travels of Winston Churchill

Rating:
Summary: Travels with Winston
Review: Ah, for the travelling life of the famous! When you read this book by Churchill's granddaughter, you get an intimate portrait of what an entourage WSC had when he went anywhere. There were private planes or yachts, villas or really up-scale hotels provided to him gratis, and a tremendous retinue of extra people to care for him. This seemed to happen even before he became world famous, and continued until his death. I don't ever want to take away the tremendous contributions he made to the peace and security of the world, but he certainly travelled like an Oriental despot! The book details his travels all over the world, and his many trips to America, both before, during and after WWII. If only the rest of us mere mortals could live in this extravagant lifestyle! This is a side of the great man's life that one rarely comes across in the many biographies of him, but it does tend to round out the picture of his life. While there are no new and startling revelations in the book, it is written in a breezy, easy reading style, and was quite enjoyable. As a granddaughter, the author tends to overlook a lot of WSC's faults, but who can blame her? We would all do that for our own family members, given the chance.

Rating:
Summary: Nice Travelogue with WSC's Granddaughter!
Review: Celia Sandys does a terrific job detailing and following in the wandering footsteps of her incredible grandad! Starting with a trip through the Mediterranean with Onassis, and the ever-complaining opera-singer Maria Callas, when the author was about 14, and witnessing luxury on an incredible scale, even for such a famous family (i.e the Churchills). Then she goes back to 1895 New York City, and Cuba. She tell of a cigar smoking contest in 1946 Cuba between her granddad and Hemingway, sponsored by the original "Old Man And the Sea", Mr. Fueuntes, who died in 2002 at the age of 104. As both a Churchill and Hemingway buff, this was a new story for me! And the travels continue through South Africe, World World 1 France, Egypt, and in all the other famous spots visited by her legendary granddad. Some new (to me anyway), black and white photes, plus some color photos of Winston's painting are included as a special bonus. All in all, a great ride, and thanks to Mrs. Sandys for this excellent effort!

Rating:
Summary: Churchillian Beach Reading
Review: If there were, in fact, such a thing as Churchillian beach reading, Chasing Churchill would be it. The book begins deliciously with an anecdote describing the author's trip with her grandfather on the world-famous Christina - a voyage that marked the beginning of the epic love affair between Maria Callas and Aristotle Onassis. Wow! From the clothes to the food to the conversation, every detail drips with elegance.

From there, though, the book loses steam, for the Christina story is by far the most interesting and well written. Perhaps because it's the only story related from the author's own memories. Other content comes in three forms: rehashing of accounts of Churchill's travels throughout his public life (most has been published elsewhere with more detail), descriptions of the author's retracing of many of those travels (not well or thoroughly described) and quotes from people Churchill met or influenced along the way (or, in many cases, their children or grandchildren relating their own family lore of encounters with the great man). Only the last of these is really worthwhile and there is so little of it that it could have made an excellent magazine article but as a book it feels sparse.

With regards to the accounts of both the author's and her grandfather's travels, there doesn't seem to have been enough of a mandate for a full length book. As stated, most of the detail regarding Churchill's travels is rehashed from other sources (many of which were also written by Churchill descendents - what would they do without their famous relative? Seems they write lots of books about him). As for the Sandys' travels, she adds little new detail other than to impress upon the reader her ability to gain access to a series of dignitaries (Fidel Castro among them).

The books acknowledgements thank several of Sandys' relatives for allowing quotation from their books as well as a series of corporatations for their sponsorship. The effect reinforces the idea that writing the book was more of an ego or money exercise than an attempt at further illuminating one of the last century's greatest men. It's a shame that a book that started so well ends up on such a poor note. Clearly, Celia Sandys would do better to rely on her own memories of her grandfather than on attempting new "research".