The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz (56 page)

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C
HAPTER 7:
S
UFFICIENT
B
LISS

He was in love
:
John Colville’s often despairing entries about Gay Margesson can be found in his original handwritten diary in the Colville Papers at the Churchill Archives Centre, but the saga, save for a few glancing references, is omitted from the published version,
The Fringes of Power
.

“She did so with an ill-grace”
:
Manuscript Diary, May 22, 1940, Colville Papers.

The sun emerged
:
Ibid., May 26, 1940.

“Only a few fishing boats”
:
Lukacs,
Five Days in London,
140.

C
HAPTER 8:
T
HE
F
IRST
B
OMBS

“In these dark days”
:
Directive to Ministers, May 29, 1940, Prime Minister Files, BBK/D, Beaverbrook Papers.

“I am convinced”
:
Dalton,
Fateful Years,
335–36. See a slightly different, and less graphic, version in Andrew Roberts,
“Holy Fox,”
225.

John Martin
:
Wheeler-Bennett,
Action This Day,
154, 156.

Inspector Thompson recalled
:
“Private Life of a Prime Minister,” MEPO 2/9851, UKARCH.

“How wonderful it would be”
:
Colville,
Fringes of Power,
1:171.

“were treated with respect”
:
Wheeler-Bennett,
Action This Day,
144.

“Wars are not won”
:
Gilbert,
War Papers,
2:243.

As the House roared
:
Halle,
Irrepressible Churchill,
137; Maier,
When Lions Roar,
256. Maier’s version reads, “And if they do come, we shall hit them on the head with beer bottles, for that is all we shall have to fight them with!”

“It was now that my love”
:
Soames,
Daughter’s Tale,
157.

One young navy man
:
Toye,
Roar of the Lion,
70.

“I feel so much”
:
Nicolson,
War Years,
94.

He instructed her
:
Ibid., 89–90.

Clementine noted
:
Pottle,
Champion Redoubtable,
224–25.

David Lloyd George
:
Toye,
Roar of the Lion,
53.

The next day
:
Ibid., 54–55.

“Churchill’s speech yesterday”
:
Ibid., 55.

C
HAPTER 9:
M
IRROR
I
MAGE

“It brings me to the fact”
:
Lukacs,
Five Days in London,
192–93n.

C
HAPTER 10:
A
PPARITION

“People who go to Italy”
:
Colville,
Fringes of Power,
1:177.

“He was in a very bad temper”
:
Ibid.

“He would turn on”
:
Thompson,
Assignment,
217.

“He has been accused”
:
A.J.P. Taylor,
Beaverbrook,
657.

“Pitch dark”
:
Cadogan,
Diaries,
296.

“The black heavy clouds”
:
Cockett,
Love and War in London,
93, 95.

“on and on and on”
:
Spears,
Fall of France,
150. In a letter dated May 30, 1940, America’s ambassador to France, William Bullitt, told President Roosevelt, “In case I should get blown up before I see you again, I want you to know that it has been marvelous to work for you and that I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your friendship.” Goodwin,
No Ordinary Time,
62.

“an angry Japanese genie”
:
Spears,
Fall of France,
161.

The empire’s preparedness
:
Kennedy to Hull, cable, June 12, 1940, FDR/Safe.

P
ART TWO:
A CERTAIN EVENTUALITY
C
HAPTER 11:
T
HE
M
YSTERY OF
S
WAN
C
ASTLE

“was to unite against”
:
Fort,
Prof,
232.

“I think he was probably”
:
Ibid., 329.

“d-dirty l-little Jew”
:
Birkenhead,
Prof in Two Worlds,
68.

“His memory was not”
:
Colville,
Winston Churchill and His Inner Circle,
48.

“Peach at luncheon”
:
Fort,
Prof,
12.

“The fact that she knew”
:
Birkenhead,
Prof in Two Worlds,
16.

“His foreign connections”
:
Fort,
Prof,
208.

“beautiful brain”
:
Colville,
Winston Churchill and His Inner Circle,
46.

“Does this mean anything to you?”
:
Jones,
Most Secret War,
135. See 135–50 for Jones’s engaging account of his detective work.

The town had a famous castle
:
Anne was queen for all of six months, until the marriage was annulled for lack of consummation. “As you know, I liked her before not well,” Henry confided to Thomas Cromwell, “but now I like her much worse.” This romantic episode can be found in Robert Hutchinson’s
Thomas Cromwell
(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2007), 253.

“I have never met”
:
Harrod,
Prof,
2.

“I do
hate
it when he goes”
:
Diary, June 13, 1940, Mary Churchill Papers.

“extremely stern and concentrated”
:
Spears,
Fall of France,
199. See ibid., 198–220, for Spears’s richly detailed account of that fateful meeting in Tours, France.

By way of further preparation
:
See Jones,
Most Secret War,
135–50.

“Tell me,” he said
:
Ibid., 137.

“He was as obstinate”
:
Ismay,
Memoirs,
173.

“Stop that dripping”
:
Fort,
Prof,
216.

“There seems some reason”
:
Lindemann to Churchill, note, June 13, 1940, F107/17, Lindemann Papers.

“This seems most intriguing”
:
Jones,
Most Secret War,
137.

“It was looking cool”
:
Pottle,
Champion Redoubtable,
224.

There was much to arrange
:
“No. 10 Downing Street: Expenditure, 1935–1936,” Ministry of Works Report, WORK 12/245, UKARCH.

“The Chamberlains have left”
:
Diary, June 15, 1940, Mary Churchill Papers.

“Mummie has given me”
:
Ibid., June 18, 1940.

“To watch him compose”
:
Colville,
Fringes of Power,
1:337.

“I understand all your difficulties”
:
Gilbert,
War Papers,
2:337–38.

“If words counted”
:
Colville,
Fringes of Power,
1:183.

C
HAPTER 12:
T
HE
G
HOSTS OF
D
ULL
P
EOPLE

“One would sit”
:
Nel,
Mr. Churchill’s Secretary,
60–61.

“A police officer”
:
Thompson,
Assignment,
3.

“Apart from these”
:
Elletson,
Chequers and the Prime Ministers,
49–50.

“Happy Prime Ministers”
:
J. Gilbert Jenkins,
Chequers,
7.

“Ye houres doe flie”
:
Ibid., 130.

Rembrandt’s
The Mathematician
:
When Lee bought it, the painting was thought to have been done by Rembrandt himself. Later research determined that it was painted by one of his students, Gerbrand van den Eeckhout. Major,
Chequers,
128.

“God made them as stubble”
:
Elletson,
Chequers and the Prime Ministers,
25–26.

“full of the ghosts of dull people”
:
Ibid., 59, 61–62.

“Here I am”
:
Soames,
Clementine Churchill,
256. Churchill used the abbreviation “wd” in his letter, instead of “would.”

“My mother took”
:
Fort,
Prof,
164–65.

“I always rather dreaded”
:
Ibid., 165.

Colville took the news
:
Colville,
Fringes of Power,
1:184.

“silent, grumpy and remote”
:
Andrew Roberts,
“Holy Fox,”
186.

“Always remember, Clemmie”
:
J. Gilbert Jenkins,
Chequers,
122.

“The war is bound”
:
Colville,
Fringes of Power,
1:184.

“It was light”
:
Ibid.

“Tell them…that”
:
Ibid.

As the coal ends of cigars
:
It is unclear just how many cigars Churchill smoked per day, and how many he actually smoked to the end. “He will light a cigar immediately after breakfast,” Inspector Thompson observed, “but by lunchtime the same cigar may be only half finished, having been relighted innumerable times and quite as often abandoned soon after. He chews cigars, he doesn’t smoke them.” The relighting process involved a good deal of smoke and fire. “One of the permanent mental pictures I have of Mr. Churchill is of the relighting of his cigar,” wrote his secretary Elizabeth Layton (later Mrs. Nel). She described the sequence: “A pause in whatever he was doing: the flame from a very large match jumping up and down, while clouds of blue smoke issued from his mouth: then a hasty shake of the match to extinguish it, and on with the job.” Expended cigars, or those Churchill deemed substandard, wound up tossed into the nearest hearth. The near-constant dormancy of his cigars prompted General Ian Jacob, assistant secretary to the War Cabinet, to observe, “As a matter of fact he didn’t really smoke at all.” See Thompson,
Assignment,
251; Nel,
Mr. Churchill’s Secretary,
45; Wheeler-Bennett,
Action This Day,
182.

“a flood of eloquence”
:
Colville,
Fringes of Power,
I:184–85.

“It was at once”
:
Ibid., 183.

C
HAPTER 13:
S
CARIFICATION

“looking just like”
:
Colville,
Fringes of Power,
1:185.

“provided, but only provided”
:
Gilbert,
War Papers,
2:346.

“What a change”
:
Jones,
Most Secret War,
138.

“some rather nebulous”
:
Ibid.

“I may be wrong”
:
Ibid., 139.

“that such investigation”
:
Fort,
Prof,
261.

“Let this be done without fail”
:
Ibid., 262.

“He was doubtless considering”
:
Colville,
Fringes of Power,
1:189.

“I wish to repeat”
:
Gilbert,
War Papers,
2:359.