In a narrative based primarily on the personal correspondence of the youthful Winston Churchill, his family, and other contemporaries, interspersed with the mature Churchill's poignant reminiscences, his granddaughter provides a rare and moving look at the formative years of Britain's great wartime leader. The son of a preeminent MP and an American socialite, Winston was born at Blenheim Palace, his ancestral home. A shy, lonely boy with a speech impediment and delicate health who barely knew his famous father, Churchill spent his early years mostly in the company of his beloved nurse, Mrs. Everest (``It was to her I poured out all my many troubles''), and younger brother, Jack. When he was not yet eight, he was banished from this comfortable environment to boarding school at St. George's, where birch- wielding despots bestowed the refinements of a classical education on their charges. Sandys presents the boy's affecting letters home to his mother from this period in full childish scrawl, along with his report cards, drawings, and reminiscences from other schoolboys. Churchill was later transferred to a school in Brighton, where the propitious climate and the relative kindliness of the teachers did not result either in better academic performance or in improved health. Sandys show that, despite precocity in certain subjects, Churchill was a mediocre student and deeply unhappy youth who suffered from what in modern terms can only be viewed as parental neglect. After several failed attempts, he achieved entry into Sandhurst, the British military academy, as a cavalry officer. His father's premature death, which occurred as he graduated creditably from Sandhurst (Churchill had at last found his niche in the Army), deprived him of his dream of entering Parliament at his father's side but filled him with a determination to pursue his father's political aims and, more importantly, to make his own mark on life. Inspiring and engrossing. (color and b&w photos)
Pub Date: Oct. 2, 1995
ISBN: 0-525-94048-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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