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The book under review is Churchill by Roy Jenkins. Pan
Books, London. Pages XXI +1001. £ 9.99. As a writer and
biographer, Jenkins’ credentials are exceptionally high.
Unfortunately he died recently. He was a former Home Secretary,
Chancellor of the Exchanger in the British Government, President
of the European Commission, President of the Royal Society of
Literature, and Chancellor of Oxford University. Author of more
than two dozen books, including the famous biographies of
Gladstone, Attlee and Baldwin, which have become vade mecum,
he was awarded the Wolfson History Prize in 2001. For Churchill’s
policy on India there is little except a couple of pages in this
big book which throw light on his bitter opposition to the
proposal for India’s self-government, and the failure of the
Cripps Mission in 1942 for which Gandhi is held responsible. I
do not think this neglect of the Indian political scene is
justified, and it is a serious lacuna in the study. Nor do other
British Dominions figure in this work.
The author
presents a three-dimensional study featuring the multifaceted
personality of Churchill. Jenkins dispels the view that
Churchill was a warmonger thirsting for battles. It was the
perilous war situation that had made him the Prime Minister. He
had no party or King’s support. Neville Chamberlain, the then
Prime Minister, had wanted Lord Halifax to succeed him. Halifax
said Churchill was a better choice. Thus Halifax paved the way
for Churchill’s premiership by his remarkable feat of
self-abnegation.
Jenkins shows how
the deteriorating military situation and Chamberlain’s failure
to meet the Nazi challenge had swung a strong public opinion in
favour of Churchill, who was thought indispensable for the
security of the country. The situation was so critical that at
one time no reserves were left in the air force. Churchill
fought with a terming spirit, and steered Britain to victory.
Like a truly objective historian, without mincing words, Jenkins
maintains that it was mainly the Soviet and American support
which made possible the destruction of Nazi power.
The outstanding
merit of Jenkins’ biography lies in his analysis of the
British Parliamentary system and its working, and a candid and
judicious appraisal of Churchill’s literary contributions.
Being himself a front-rank politician, Jenkins unfolds the
underlying forces that influence the making of policies at
critical moments in which various factors such as vested
interests, waltzing ambition, tricks and manipulations and
clutch of the imponderable, play their part inexorably.
Surveying the
upswing and downswing of Churchill’s political career and
conduct, Jenkins shows how he had inherited the mantle of his
father by joining the Conservative party, then shifted to the
Liberal party, which he left to be a client of Lloyd George Conservative
coalition like Benjamin Disraeli’s. He had a deep and abiding
attachment with the Conservative party to which he stuck until
his death.
Historical
personalities and events are on Jenkins’ fingertips. His
narrative presents a wonderful portrait-gallery of several
prominent public men who tread on each other’s heels in quick
succession. Such an achievement is only possible by the mastery
of a tremendous source material, its assimilation and deeper
analysis. In particular, Jenkins has made extensive use of Sir
Martin Gilbert’s, ably edited and indispensable Churchill
volumes. But Jenkins wears his scholarship lightly, free from
any trace of pedantry.
Churchill took to
writing like a duck to water. At Harrow his tutor Robert
Somerwell aroused his interest in narrative history. He read
through several times Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire and Macaulay’s History of England, which
formed the bedrock of his historical thinking and narrative
power. He wrote extensively, and became one of the most prolific
writers of his time. He produced a number of works, including My
Early Life (which he thought his best book), A History of
the English Speaking People, Life of Marlborough and
six volumes on the World War. I think that essentially Churchill
was a historian of character than of structure.
Jenkins tells us
of Churchill’s whims and eccentricities. Despite his ruthless
trait and impetuosity of temperament displayed at moments,
Jenkins’ Churchill is intensely human and humane, magnanimous,
courteous and forgiving, though ever anxious to safeguard his
own interests. Moved by nostalgic memories and impact of certain
situations, tears would roll down his cheeks.
Jenkins throws
light on Churchill’s finances. He lived in grand style and yet
his financial position was precarious. He earned a great deal
through his publications and lectures and spent lavishly on
himself and his family, especially on his mother who was
unsparing in her demand for money. There was never anything
narrow in his money dealings. He greatly valued friendship, was
a brilliant conversationist, enjoyed good company, liked
gambling and racetracks, and whisky, soda and brandy remained
his everlasting companions.
To Churchill,
polities meant the exercise of power, which he loved to acquire.
That is why he was ever anxious to hold a ministerial position
in the Cabinet. Despite failure in his health and his inability
to discharge his responsibilities as Prime Minister, he clung to
office despite his colleague’s resentment. Jenkins maintains
that his second government failed to inject any new dynamism
into the post-war British economy.
Jenkins emphasises
that like a statesmen Churchill foresaw the Soviet threat to
world peace. He was anxious to mobilise the western countries
and the USA to offer a united front and thus he was virtually
the progenitor of the idea of a European Union. He stood for the
disuse of nuclear weapons. In this connection, he spared no
pains in holding summit meetings of world leaders to take steps
for restraining the use of nuclear weapons. He believed that his
voice counted among the councils of the world, but that was
illusion. In his own country too his influence had begun to
wane, more in the Conservative party.
Jenkins has drawn
a vivid and very moving account of Churchill’s illness and
death. With much difficulty he could remember things of the
past. Except relaxing in the south of France and in Aristotle
Onassis’ yacht and reading Bronte novels, he would gaze at
fire, sitting gloomy and quiet. On January 24,1965, he died.
Churchill’s
funeral brought out millions of people to pay him homage. It was
as great an event as the funeral of the Duke of the Wellington,
the hero of Waterloo who had vanquished Napoleon. Thus Churchill
was laid to rest. Perhaps the greatest Englishman of all times.
Of course, Shakespeare belongs to a different category!
Jenkins has
produced a superb biography of Churchill, a brilliant tour de
force which reflects his profound scholarship, wide sweep,
and exquisite narrative virtuosity.
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When I started writing
this book I thought Gladstone was, by a narrow margin, the greater
man, certainly the more remarkable specimen of humanity. In the
course of writing, I have changed my mind. I now put Churchill, with
all his idiosyncrasies, his indulgences, his occasional childishness
but also his genius, his tenacity and persistent ability, right or
wrong, successful or unsuccessful, to be larger than life, as the
greatest human being ever to occupy 10 Downing Street.
