Winston’s Bandits Churchill and His Maverick Friends
Though today he is hailed as one of Britain’s greatest leaders, throughout his career, Winston Churchill was an outsider, accumulating a reputation for bad judgement and untrustworthiness. Only risk-takers and fellow outsiders would back him – but these strong and often feuding personalities proved to be vital to his decision-making in war and peace alike.
Winston’s Bandits provides, for the first time, a detailed account of his greatest friendships. These friends were Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook, a press baron who craved power but only on his own terms; Frederick Lindemann, later Lord Cherwell, an ascetic and quarrelsome scientist who believed in Churchill’s intellectual genius; Brendan Bracken, an Irishman from a humble background who reinvented himself as a major force in financial publishing and gave Churchill unconditional support; the young Bob Boothby, who would earn notoriety for adventurous sexual conduct and dubious financial dealings; Randolph Churchill, who was often a disappointment and burden to his father; and Duncan Sandys, who reaped the full benefits of being Churchill’s son-in-law in his political career.
Together, they were Winston’s bandits. This remarkable book explores how Churchill’s relationships with these forceful and intriguing sparring partners provide the key to understanding his greatest triumphs and disasters.
Reviews
“Winston Churchill had a rare capacity for friendship and Adrian Phillips has unerringly homed in on the close friends who helped him achieve victory in the Second World War. In this well-researched, closely argued and occasionally revisionist book, Phillips goes beyond most conventional accounts by also forensically focusing on the relationships between the friends, too, and especially their feuds. This work is an important addition to the Churchillian canon.”
Andrew Roberts, author of Churchill: Walking with Destiny
“This is a valuable book, well written and a pleasure to read. It sheds light on aspects of Winston Churchill’s career which are overlooked by those who see him simply as the man who delivered victory in 1945. Adrian Phillips knows what many historians, dazzled by the myth, fail to see: Churchill was always vulnerable, right up to the end of the war. He was mistrusted by much of his party and disliked by the establishment. In these circumstances, he depended on the clutch of supporters, some of them slightly dodgy and unreliable but all, like him, mavericks, whom Hugh Dalton described as Churchill’s ‘camarilla’. Phillips concentrates on their role to give a new and important perspective on Churchill’s erratic political career and brings the disparate elements into a cohesive narrative, thematic as much as chronological. This is a novel approach, a revealing one and one which is far from uncritical. But still it is clear that whatever may be said against him, Churchill remains a very great man – indeed, perhaps all the more so for being revealed in three dimensions.”
Walter Reid, author of Fighting Retreat: Churchill and India
“A well-researched and lively foray into the curious cast of colourful characters spanning Churchill’s remarkable career. Phillips’s enjoyable account of friendship, feuds and Whitehall machinations helps us see Churchill in a new light.”
Professor Rory Cormac, University of Nottingham
“Adrian Phillips’s new book examines Churchill through his circle of friends – some of them members of the so-called Order of the Bath, who enjoyed the doubtful privilege of conferring with their master in his tub. For the grandson of a duke, Winston’s coterie was anything but predictable: none of its members was drawn from school or army friends but rather formed of a motley crew, some of whom were rewarded with high office during the Second World War. It included the Canadian newspaper tycoon Lord Beaverbrook, the Irish fantasist Brendan Bracken, the half-German boffin Frederick Lindemann, Churchill’s son-in-law Duncan Sandys and, for a while at least, his hapless son Randolph. Phillips brings this world to life with considerable panache.”
Giles MacDonogh, author of After the Reich
“A fascinating insight into an unfamiliar facet of Churchill’s character. Adrian Phillips has written an important book.”
Adrian Tinniswood, author of Noble Ambitions
“A fast-paced, masterfully written tale of fascinating political intrigue and cunning activity woven by Churchill’s ‘bathroom group’ of confidants, who helped shape the course and outcome of the Second World War. In particular, the behind-the-scenes roles of businessman Brendan Bracken and scientist Frederick Lindemann are highlighted, along with other leading characters such as press baron Lord Beaverbrook, politician Duncan Sandys and Churchill’s son Randolph.”
Mungo Melvin, author of Manstein: Hitler’s Greatest General
“A magnificent new account of Churchill told through the lens of his closest friends.”
Helen Fry, author of Women in Intelligence
“Adrian Phillips provides fascinating new material about Churchill’s strange bunch of outside advisers and how they took on Britain’s inner establishment.”
David Lough, author of No More Champagne: Churchill and His Money
“Adrian Phillips offers a riveting analysis of an area of Churchill’s life that, until now, has not received enough scholarly attention: the great friendships, personal and political, that sustained him through the towering highs and infamous lows of the 1930s and ’40s.”
Ed Owens, author of After Elizabeth: Can the Monarchy Save Itself?
“An absorbing and illuminating account of the loyal and unpredictable mavericks of Winston Churchill’s inner circle. Drawing on new material, Adrian Phillips sheds much-needed light on an important aspect of Churchill’s story: friendship.”
Claire Hubbard-Hall, author of The Real Miss Moneypenny: The Forgotten Women of British Intelligence
“In Winston’s Bandits, Adrian Phillips achieves no small feat, drawing our attention to a blank page in the otherwise well-thumbed tome that is the life of Sir Winston Churchill: his friendships. Churchill gathered his courtiers based on a complex interplay of privilege, political ambition and professional respect – but, above all, character. Weaker leaders have leaned on sycophants; Churchill was enhanced by surrounding himself with those confident in speaking truth to power. This would have national, if not international, implications once Churchill entered No. 10 in May 1940 and positioned his ‘bandits’ at the heart of power during Britain’s darkest hour. Ruthless towards those who fell from favour and magnanimous towards former enemies, Churchill remains the most human of our great historical figures. Phillips expertly navigates the bonds of loyalty as well as the infighting and ambitions that shaped the court of Churchill.”
Jenny Grant, historian of Polish–British relations in the Second World War
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- Hardback, 480 pages
- ISBN: 9781785907890
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29 August 2024
Available to pre-order - £25.00
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- ISBN: 9781785909269
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29 August 2024
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