The more Benedict writes, the more she expects her past works to carry her future endeavors. Her latest works have felt more like the top sliver of people’s lives, rather than seeing every layer of a person’s past and emotional well-being, we see the overview. They’re like the verbal form of one’s life flashing before their eyes. Lady Clementine flashes before ours.
We don’t get to know her very well, but we learn a great deal about her. There’s this standoff between us and her inner-being, a separation that makes Clementine Churchill a distant grasp of a mentor or role model.
With that being said, I didn’t know that Clementine Churchill existed before this book was published. So, it’s another one of those double edged swords. Do I think this book accomplished enough by bringing her to light, not so much. But I was still enlightened by who this person was. There were a lot of gaps between years of her life and a sort of stagnant emotional maturity.
However, from what I read about her, this is what I’ve learned. More obviously, to start, Winston Churchill had a wife! In all my years of education, a great public high school, a bachelors degree, no one had ever mentioned Clementine Churchill and her role in history.
Clementine Churchill was born on May 17, 1965. She married Winston Churchill on the precipice of World War 1, quickly thrusted into the role of a public figure in a time of crisis. A period of which the Churchill family stumbled, politically and financially. World War II proved to be an opportunity for everyone in the Churchill family, not just Winston. Clementine pioneered numerous female roles during wartime, as well as a Red Cross Foundation Relief Fund for Soviet Russia.
But other than that, I don’t know. Nothing more was included in her story, and for that reason, I cannot say I recommend this book for those out there seeking a tale to distract from this crazy time.