Podcast
Short History Of...
The author, Andrew Roberts, appeared on the podcast to discuss his definitive biography, Churchill: Walking with Destiny. Roberts focused on Churchill’s difficult and formative childhood, emphasizing how his father’s constant put-downs and neglect, coupled with his mother’s distance, shaped his personality despite his intense admiration for both parents. The conversation also touched upon Churchill's unique understanding of America and his early success as the world's best-paid war correspondent.
Episode: Winston Churchill
The author, Andrew Roberts, is a historian who wrote the book 'Churchill: Walking With Destiny' and described Churchill's father as putting him down and neglecting him, causing Churchill to admire his parents while feeling ignored and isolated as a child.
Nonetheless, there were problems. Primarily, the fact that his father didn't really appreciate that there was anything special about Winston. He was constantly putting his son down. He was not visiting him, and neither did his mother.
And so in that sense, although he was ignored quite a lot as a child, he did worship his parents. He thought his father was the greatest man on earth and attempted to emulate him, and he loved his mother unreservedly, even though rather sadly, he said, she shone for me like the evening star, brilliant but at a distance.
He had lots of American friends. He was somebody who felt at home in America. He went to America 14 times.
And so he really did sort of understand the American continent in a way that surprisingly enough, very few other British politicians did at the time.
Barely soon after starting his journalistic career, he was the best paid war correspondent in the world which is a tremendous thing.
