Winston's Bandits: Churchill And His Maverick Friends was released by Biteback Publishing in August 2024. Churchill was a warm, emotional man, who needed the support of friends (and family). Through his wilderness years in the 1930s when he battled to re-arm Britain against Hitler and the challenges of leading the country's fight in the Second World World War, a small handful of individuals gave him that backing. The story of these friendships adds an unfamiliar dimension to the established narrative of Churchill as a towering, unique figure in history.
These friends were all significant figures in their own right; like Churchill himself they were individualists and non-conformists, at odds with the contemporary establishment. Brendan Bracken was a self-invented Irishman who had established himself as a leading financial publisher and gave Churchill undying loyalty. Frederick Lindemann was a distinguished scientist but an outsider; Churchill admired his judgement on the complex technological issues of modern warfare. Bob Boothby, scandalously bi-sexual, was one of the very first politicians to recognise the danger of Hitler. When war came the press tycoon Lord Beaverbrook gave Churchill a vital psychological boost in their fraught relationship.
The buccaneering spirit of Churchill's circle was one of its distinctive features and many disapproved. When Neville Chamberlain was pushed into a corner defending his appeasement policy during a fierce Parliamentary debate in 1938 he complained of being sniped at by "Winston's bandits" (He used the Italian word banditti which gave added bite to his disdain). ​
Elsewhere Lord Beaverbrook boasted that his wartime work at the Ministry of Aircraft Production was that of an "inspired brigand."
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Looking at Churchill and his friends adds a human dimension to a towering historical personality, who too often appears as remote figure, standing isolated on a plinth. They were the men who were with him in his disasters, hard times and his triumphs.