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FAMILY ALBUM by Mary Soames

FAMILY ALBUM

By

Pub Date: Nov. 8th, 1982
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Yes, still more Churchilliana--but an entrancing array of photographs nonetheless, with a running text whose directness and throwaway charm will hot surprise readers of Mary Soames' biography of her mother, Clementine Churchill. We first see the infant Winston, and his prepossessing young parents Jennie and Randolph; we last see Clementine majestically alone, beside a bust of Winston on the centenary of his birth. In between are Winston and Clementine ""playing bears"" with baby Randolph; Winston, as Home Secretary, accompanying soldiers and police in a raid on anarchists (""needless to say he could not resist the lute of action and excitement . . . and those who were apt to be critical,"" were); Winston visiting the Eighth Army with Monty, ""who, not to be outdone . . . is wearing an Australian hat!"" Also: Chartwell and Chequers and the underground war redoubt; cartoons, telegrams, menus, and other memorabilia; and famous others--like Eleanor Roosevelt touring blitzed London (said Winston in a farewell letter: ""You have certainly left golden footprints behind you""). Style, drama, flavor: on rare exhibit.