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."
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.