Jacket of the book in the English language edition.
Russians will learn intriguing details of Winston Churchill’s family life, as a compelling biography is translated from the English
A top Moscow publishing house is preparing to issue in the Russian language a biography that delves into little-known aspects of Sir Winston Churchill’s family life.
THE CHURCHILLS: A Family Portrait by Celia Lee and John Lee, first published by Palgrave Macmillan (New York and London, 2010), is shortly to be republished in translation by AST, one of the largest publishing companies in Russia.
Tatiana Roshupkina, a leading translator who has for many years worked in the discipline in London, lent her expertise to enable a Russian version to be prepared. Russian citizens will be intrigued to learn how their country was dear to the hearts of the British statesman, his wife, and his parents.
The book recounts the inside story of Winston and his relatively unknown brother John (called Jack in the family) who worked as a London stockbroker, and their parents.
Title page in Russian of The Churchills A Family Portrait.
Peregrine and Yvonne Spencer-Churchill, Peregrine being Jack’s younger son, asked Celia Lee to write a detailed study of the four members of the Spencer-Churchill family who included Jack and the brothers’ parents Lord Randolph ( the second son of the 7th Duke and Duchess of Marlborough of Blenheim Palace) and their American mother Jennie, née Jerome, Lady Randolph Spencer-Churchill.
There is a fascinating Russian element to the Churchill story. It was thanks to an official visit by the Russian Imperial family that Winston Churchill’s parents met. Jennie, who was at the time Miss Jeanette Jerome aged 19, was invited with her mother and elder sister Clara to a ball on board HMS Ariadne on the Isle of Wight during Cowes Week on August 12 1873.
The Russian Imperial family were staying with Queen Victoria at her favourite country home Osborne House which was on the island. The ball was held in the presence of the Prince of Wales later King Edward VII, the occasion being to introduce the Russian guests to high society in the United Kingdom and Europe generally.
The Jeromes were Americans living in Paris and Jennie’s father Leonard was one of the richest men in New York, hence their presence in such society. Lord Randolph Spencer-Churchill was dazzled by Jennie’s great beauty and secured an introduction, and it was love at first sight on both sides. There was a whirlwind romance of the stuff that Victorian novels are made of and the young couple were married in Paris in April 1874, by which time Randolph was Member of Parliament for Woodstock. Russia would therefore forever hold a special place in the Churchills’ hearts, and the romance was a story that their elder son Winston liked to tell years later.
Tatiana Roshupkina.
During Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee year 1887, Lord Randolph and Jennie supported by the Prince of Wales decided to go on what was supposed to be a holiday to Russia as the guests of the Czar and Czarina, but which was in effect an unofficial political visit. They left in December just before the British Christmas and on arrival in St Petersburg were given a reception fit for British royalty.
Czar Alexander III invited them to the beautiful Gatschina Palace, which Jennie who was very artistic described as “Russia’s Windsor Castle.” Every day the Churchills were guests at aristocratic parties. There were troika rides in the country, skating by day, and balls, opera, and dinners by night. Whilst Randolph had a private audience with the Czar, Jennie had the equivalent with the Czarina. The Czarina wanted to know everything about society, fashion, and political life in England, and although Jennie’s replies were not recorded, but since she was well educated and as the daughter-in-law of the Marlboroughs was very much a part of high society and well versed in all three subjects, she was undoubtedly the best woman in England to explain it all to her host. A further advantage was that having lived in Paris from the age of 12 for seven years prior to her marriage Jennie spoke fluent French, the language of the Russian Imperial Court.
Lord Randolph and the Czar got down to the real business of the visit; the Czar reassured Randolph that Russia was no threat whatsoever to Britain and its Empire and it seemed he wished him to convey these sentiments to the British parliament. Lord Randolph wrote letters home detailing all the important information obtained during the visit of the Prince of Wales.
Celia Lee presents Ms Roshupkina (at right) to the Duke of Kent at a Winston Churchill birthday celebration at the Polish Hearth Club, South Kensington, in 2009.
Following a fabulous New Year’s Eve party in St Petersburg as guests of the Czar and Czarina the Churchills left for home, travelling via Moscow. They completed their political networking by stopping at Berlin for a 10-day visit, where they were invited to a royal command performance of the opera and were formally presented to Emperor Wilhelm and his court.
It would not be the first friendship between members of the Churchill family and heads of the Russian state. There can be no doubt that when the Second World War broke out Winston Churchill who in 1940 became Prime Minister of a coalition government remembered his parents’ relationship with that great country and looked to the now head of the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin to take Britain’s side in the war. Winston’s wife Clementine became head of the Red Cross Aid to Russia campaign and visited the USSR. By December 1942, Clementine had raised £2.25m for the appeal, a figure which would increase eventually to £7m. In 1945, the Soviet Red Cross honoured Clementine by awarding her the Distinguished Red Cross Service Badge.
The Russians fought like tigers on every front to destroy Hitler’s armies and when the war was over Winston Churchill famously said: “It was the Red Army that tore the guts out of the Wehrmacht.”
Andrew Lownie at his home near St Margaret’s Church, Westminster, where Winston and Clementine Churchill were married.
Leading literary agent Andrew Lownie brokered the arrangement with AST publishers, in co-operation with Marsh Agency, London. Mr Lownie, himself a renowned historian, has newly authored Stalin’s Englishman: the Lives of Guy Burgess, which will be published in autumn 2015.
Издательство АТС в Москве готовит к публикации историческую биографию Династия Черчиллей: Семейный портрет – перевод с английского на русский книги THE CHURCHILLS: A Family Portrait, авторов Celia Lee и John Lee, впервые опубликованной издательством Palgrave Macmillan (Нью-Йорк и Лондон) в 2010 году. Более подробная информация будет предоставлена ближе к выходу книги.
