borris. her work has appeared in the guardian, telegraph and the economist, tonight at harvard bookstore he joins us to present her new book clementine, the life of mrs. winston churchill. victory in world war ii would have been impossible without her . she guided her husband's career and phrases both scrupulous and fair minded, has done proud of the strong wills an ambition woman who churchill's political career would have been a washout. we are very happy to welcome the author to harvard bookstore

tonight, please join me in welcoming sonia purnell. >> thank you very much. sorry about the technical problems. it's wonderful to be in harvard. when i told my kids i was coming here, that was one of the few times they thought about doing something very cool. it's good to be here. talking about universities, c clementine. she picked up very honorary degrees as well including one for oxnard university. the power to achieve and per

persevere. only hinted at just a little bit of how important and crucial she had been. churchill's own chief of staff, but saw her work and during the war, desperate times for fighting for survival and concluded that without any doubt, that without clementine the world would have been different. what seems to be very strange to me when i came to the book was that no one remembers clementine now. she's really not known anymore. when i didn't have anything better anymore, all well educated, knowledgeable women of the world, i said who is this

woman, one got even close to knowing who she was. who was she? she's worth reflecting in this great town that she never had a chance to study for her degree herself. she was born in the victorian and britain probably more than america was comparative. her mother, eldest daughter had made very certain that she wouldn't go to university. own marriage had broken down into the weight of serial on both sides, disapproved of blue stockings. that's her name. female graduates.

particularly those good at math. anyone who could do sums was incapable of attracting many men she had great hopes for her daughter. that would solve two problems. a, conventional daughter off of her hands and hopefully also the fact that she never had any money, no cash at all. clementine had grown up being used to -- let me show you a picture as a child. she's grown up being used to go to stores and ask for credits for food as there wasn't any cash around. sometimes when lady had many lovers throughout her lifetime.

sometimes as many ten. she was rather busy. [laughter] >> she was too busy and forgot to put supper on the table. these are all the events that have effect on clementine. she was very young, very fearful very girl. she grew up in households but for a long time the best friend, fell under the wheels of a train who is so desperate to join her and i'm afraid that she didn't make it. she later told her own children that she remember not having gone over that. she was a shy little girl but

neglectful mother. late teens, very early 20's, she's using color shirt and tie and made me think a lot about clementine. she saved his life when tried to push him in front of a train. nevertheless, she did feel quite strongly that ultimately militant tactics of that sort had been necessary. she was someone who had quite radical views and these views, i just want to -- here we go. i just wanted to show you.

ms. harris had been inspired. she didn't really have any proper formal education, but she went to grammar school and got terrific education. very unusual for women of her class. the fact that she went to a proper school but a very good one, not a grand one in anyway is quite remarkable. while she was there she pleaded with her to study and go to the university and clementine was tempted and she had to be good at math, but views of math are so extreme that to avoid having ears boxed, she would creep to the garden through her gray yard and spread out her math textbooks and do her studying there because her mother never came down that way and never

would find out. i sometimes point this out to my own children who are amazed anyone would go through such extremes for geometry. so lady, her sex life, everyone knew about it. she had been exiled from society but she wanted to clementine to enter to that society. she was going to launch clementine into london society and let me show you how beautiful she was. there she is. people were amazed at her beauty and never quite captured by

photograph but people thought she had features. i've chosen profile and people thought she was extremely good on a coin. anyway, it's not just me that thinks she was good looking, but all these men, rich titled men which her mother had hoped. her younger sister was keeping marriage files, rejected, possibles and pending, she hadn't given her answer. clementine was under pressure to get married. they were dull. they were complacent and they

weren't nearly as clever as she was. clearly the fact that she was something of romantic. in 1904 she went and then someone else entered the room and it was winston churchill. he was immediately struck by her amazing sapphire blue blue eyes and people who knew her talk about them now. he asked to be introduced to her and he was. and then he couldn't think of a single word to say to her. so the stood there, speechless, slightly gazing at the beautiful

woman but struck down by her beauty and she thought he was weird and couldn't get away. not everyone liked churchill. winston churchill was in search of a wife. the problem is he didn't have a title, he didn't have any money either, he was the grandson of a duke, nothing had been passed down to him. any money he had pretty much came from his own efforts, politics but not much. other women were also put off him by the fact that he was obsessed with politician. he had been turned down by et --

ethel. being turned by others as well. started talking about how in the early 30's not only failed to get married and hairs on his chest and rumors was he the marrying type. people started saying that he was a confirmed bachelor. i don't know about here. he sued someone for suggesting him and had a good daughter and no hesitance and he ended up with 500 pounds in damage which was useful money. in fact, he often sued people and was successful at making money that way. so anyway, there he was looking for a wife and he got absolutely nowhere. and it was all looking unfortunate. they didn't see each other again until four years, in 1908 the

kindly aunt launched clementine was given up that she was going to get married, invited her to a dinner party. another woman had pulled out to the last minute and it was 13. she was told to go by her mother and no uncertain terms, she had been given french lessons all day which is how she try today make a living and couldn't go to dinner in those days and she and her mother were scrubbing quietly and she's grumpy about it. meantime across town churchill is grumpy because he's been invited to this dinner party and he doesn't want to go too. you must go. and so he went across and arrived really late.

there was one chair left on the table and, yes, it was next to clementine and this time he thought lots of things to say and he realized she loved ideas and most of all she loved the strategy of politics of what was going on. they couldn't stop talking and everyone else around the table had never seen churchill talk like this before. he didn't want to go have the brandy cigars. rushed back to be with clementine. he was gaining weight and losing hair.

she saw him brilliant and exciting. that was something that she never changed her mind about him. she always enjoyed her company and that to her was a magcal thing. well, four months later they were married and there she is with her brother bill taking her in because by this point the man she thought was her father and it wasn't her father. probably her father was, he also happened to be her uncle by marriage. it's complicated. sort of things that went on in country houses. he locked very down on wedding day. he looked like criation. unfair, i think.

it was discusdz where they signed the register. she realized pretty soon that this was where she was going to donate her life and winston was never unfaithful, never interested in another woman ever. his mistress was politics, it was politics that clementine was going to have to accommodate in her life. fortunately, that wasn't a problem for her. she wanted to be his equal. she really did. she talked to minister, she

jumped on anyone that might help her to understand winston's world so that she could enter it along side him and be helpful. there she is going off with her husband. she was very much -- they were team. it was really two for the price of one. she was involved in anything. there she is. she broke the mold for being the first woman ever. she always looked rather gorgeous. she always looked very elegant and became a style icon. people used to copy and ask her constantly where she got it

from. she became in every aspect of his life. she liked to analyzed thing. it was sort of more emotional. but he lived this gilded life. he never traveled on a bus, he never carried money. so he really didn't understand how the rest of us lived and she, because she had this childhood was able to help him understand and to help him sound like -- the speech that we all remember and seem to resinate with us all, her knowledge of what people were going through, she always worked very hard to maintain the directly fed into it was her idea along with his that words in speeches, they

were simple ones. if you had been to 11-12, you still didn't have to look at words in the dictionary. thigh are very simple. she always wanted to put in what it was like for people who were outside that gilded circles. also manage winston in those days. 50% genius and 50% bloody fool. and so she became almost like an announcement, particularly when it came to his own welfare. she would make decisions at prime minister t leader, slice through bad weather or visit soldiers during busy battle.

winston would consult her. she was a very, very, very, the most careful prime minister's wife that we had ever had. no one comes close to that even now. she was involved in every aspact of government business. she would take captain ministers. she would advise churchill on the meetings with roosevelt and stolin. she also volunteered as -- sending fire crews where fires broke out or a bomb fell out. highly dangerous job but she did it to encourage others.

14 hours a day underground in tube sections. they weren't very safe. she made sure that they had heating and lighting and restrooms, beds specifically wide enough to comfort a frighten child that. was her idea but also made it happen. they had no heating, sometimes no lighting, certainly no alternative exits if it was fire or direct hit. she made sure that these things changed so she had a direct impact in so many things. one aspect that i wanted to touch on which was earlier in their marriage where you can see very clearly and i thought it was only right that it was about

her word to winston changed history and in a review of my book in the irish independent. in particular she reprimanded her husband. you heard of them, sent to unrest and they got up to some fairly unspeakable things. it was incredibly unpopular and she absolutely she thought it was really not right. and she really studied on very carefully and urged him to put

himself in the place of the irish, just one of many, many that she sent to him. just to give you an idea as to how she would cover the matters and speak to him. you would not be coward by the just and unjust. it always makes me unhappy and disappointed when i see you take for granted that the rough i insisted punish way will prevail. so you can see that she, you know, there was no nonsense side. she was affectionate and he join it had peace party in the government and he helped negotiate the agreement that created the irish free state, which is the first big step as we have now. she deserves the gratitude from

all ireland and, indeed, she does. she deserves gratitude from many other things as well. she did help winston churchill. he put little note under her bedroom door, she had always made possible his life and any work that he had done within it. she was tough with him but also very loving and she supported him and she cried with him and boosts him but also took him on whenever necessary. it was very strange that she has been confined. i'm hoping this book with your help will do a little bit to remedy that because actually she deserves better gratitude from all of us.

[applause] >> and are we doing questions? >> yeah. keep in mind that we need to bring a microphone over to you. [inaudible] >> let me show you another picture. so that's my favorite picture. that's during the war. the reason she wore those turbans is she's waiting car cartierr diamonds too. really dangerous hard work. they had to wear turbans to keep from machinery and chemicals. she never forgot what they were doing and how brave they were and how hard-working they were.

she was very clever about political symbolism. everything she did was very well thought through and that was one thing she appreciated. sometimes words from winston speeches. she thought you should look good in war. so she dressed up as much as she could and when there wasn't hot water to wash her hair, liquid that gave herself shine and it was washed in benetine because there often wasn't hot water around. >> what did these other men of power think of her because she clearly was having such a great influence on winston?

the american embassador was one who noticed how influential she was. but he always thought she was a very good thing. one letter that i found out which he wrote to her saying, winston gave wonderful speech today and i noticed your passage about france in it. he knew that she was, you know, very much part of the speech writing and team. people initially thought and the government machine, she would give orders. but over time she won them because she was simply incredibly effective and she thought about issues about compensation of people whose houses had been bombed long before the officials did and she would send them in saying, what should we do about this and

slowly, slowly, they realized that she was a formidable force. she had winston's back that never disputed anything that she saw or did. she complemented him. he was busy doing fighting overseas and she was making sure that everything was going okay in the home front. it did work quite well. her biggest critic early on towards the end of the war was women in love with her saying how impressive and how popular she is. she won people around. she just didn't tell the world about what she was saying. >> i just wondered, how did she reconcile the 45 general

elections off the sort -- she warn winston about that. she had thousands and thousands of letters every week because people saw her as a champion. she got a fairly clear impression that people just wanted to change of the war and that churchill wasn't doing enough to paint a vision of hope. remember the class system in britain n. the -- in the 30's seemed to be heartless. at the end of the day churchill was a conservative. although they loved him for leading britain through the war, they were not confident that he would make britain a fairer party after the war. the labour party presented hope. she was too tired and too busy

so it never happened. so, i think, she knew it was coming. that doesn't mean to say when it did came, it didn't affect. they were incredibly saddened by that. who wouldn't have been? [inaudible] >> when she back to the conservative party, she remain ad liberal all her life. he feel like he had to pull -- she's still liberal. you know, drag her along. this is where i belong but necessarily her. yes, absolutely. when he was a liberal and working on the foundation, she always urged him on. one of the things that she succeeded in bringing him around

persuaded to back the female vote for years and years. in 1918 some women to get the vote. so she was quite a long ways, always. >> what kind of a relationship did she have with her daughter? >> well, they liked each other a lot. pamela wasn't a women's women's, she liked men a lot. sh was a big news to the churchill. britain had no chance without america. there really wasn't anyone else. american support was vital and urgent and one of the ways were

to get involved in another european war, we still had to find a way for americans to help with ships, planes and gunser for the meantime and pamela was unleashed like people like him. she seduced and many others, many american generals and reported back to her parents and she she did her patriotic duty. there's a whole chapter about this in the book with operation seduction usa. [laughter] >> she had various techniques and shai -- they backed her up. that marriage wasn't going to last. he forever more accuse his wife to be unfaithful and actually

she was right, they did. they gave pamela a pension 500 pounds a year for the rest of their lives. they were very grateful for what she did for her country. [inaudible] >> any analysis you draw from the relationship? >> good question. marina wheeler, subject to my first book, he would like to be textual and it's interesting, marina his wife is also to the left of him. just as clementine was the left of churchill.

he finds it quite difficult to talk. again, he has no small talk, something he shares with churchill. long suffering women who are repaired to put up with all sorts of things to further their husband's course. churchill was not a slander. you know, i would want to be in their marriage with churchill. it was like being marry today hurricane. selfish, focused on whatever it was that he was doing. nothing ever stayed so and that's why she had their own bedroom from the time they returned from their honeymoon. she had to retrieve drr -- from

the maddens and it was exhausting. there are parallels but i don't put them in the same class as churchill. >> any other questions? >> was winston churchill's mother american? >> yeah. >> bostonian? >> new yorker, strategic alliance. she went onto her many lovers. these women, since they didn't have much else to do, she had 200, not all at ones but over

the course her lifetime. she was not around much during churchill's childhood and didn't until him getting famous. i think actually that was one of the bonds between them. great love of ideas and politics and the intellect. >> funny story or sad story about how his mother was all dressed out to go for the evening and he was small enough that she had a run on one stocking and when she got back he noticed it was on the other leg. >> a certain gentleman went to tea. >> he had the wonderful nanny.

>> clementine had no such person. the only she had was her old sister. clementine had a lot to deal with. so their marriage was a love match. it was a love match and it was the most incredible of 67 years. i find amazingly. >> what kind of input or opinion did she have on the way end of the war came about and the meeting with stollen and

roosevelt. always kept his cards close to his chest. churchill would talk about loving that man and honored. the anglo american were packed to be rock solid but there was times roosevelt where he didn't tell churchill what he was up to and clementine warned him in his dealings with roosevelt. on stollen, he hated because he backed up the russians against the revolution. we had to have russia on the side. they had the manpower. she raised $500 million for

russia fund. a country who was bankrupt. charity, like an early holiday, anything, this money she raised she sent to russia stolen was astonished. he invited her on her own to russia in april of 1935 and they met on their own and gave her a communist honor badge. which gave her permanent russia pension and free travel all over russia, not that she had many use of that, but actually negotiated with stalin on her

own. no other prime minister's wife. it would be impossible. this meeting was extraordinary and yet barely knew that. again, i find this quite odd. >> no idea what he was up to? yeah. news were coming out of poland. she was raising the issues with stalin. she knew what was going on. we needed russia, the west needed russia, but at the same time these could not be ignored and she alone had to deal with the very delicate situation.

>> relationship with elenor roosevelt? >> yes. a nice picture. there they are. this is in quebec in 1943. roosevelt was more of a public figure when they met in 1942. that picture there is very significant. you need to push yourself more. i know you're going to come and clementine try today hide. she was so shy but she was fished out until you're going to start broadcasting which she did and roosevelt was behind that and influence her. but they supported each other at times and there were cracks between church and fdr, i

already mentioned and kept things going, that was a very significant relationship and one that carried on until elenor roosevelt died. you know, it was quite affectionate, poynant in a way. elenor and churchill didn't get along that well. churchill would be infuruated. but clementine views were much more many line with elenor. >> one or two more questions. >> you mentioned the letters, could you describe some of your others that were particularly

interesting? >> yes, a great deal of research over here in the u.s. library is wonderful. papers there still not being formatted. very nice person. they were covered in. pamela lived with them a lot in the war. they were quite close clementine and pamela. that was all terrific. but also five or six of clementie's pa were still alive. ..

don't even mention her. she's really, really baffling i have to say. you guessed it. including one called the greatest briton on mars, which doesn't mention her. helping unmask a man without mentioning his wife? even if she was a normal life but she wasn't a normal life. she was his suspend doctor, his lobbies, his doctor. god knows what else. how can you ignore her? i don't understand it really. anyway i was very happy to do the detective work and put it all together. was lucky to find lots of great sort of nuggets of gold. >> thank you so much. [applause] >> so once again companies of "clementine" our personal in the next room.

just give us a couple of minis to move some things on -- couple of minutes to move things on the table. thank you. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

>> next on booktv a program for the 20th annual baltimore book festival. veteran injured advocate wes moore talks about his book "the work: my search for a life that matters." >> [inaudible conversations] >> good afternoon, everybody. how is everybody doing? all right but i'm sitting next to wes moore. can you believe that?

[applause] >> thank you, thank you. and i'm sitting with farajii muhammad. can you believe that? [applause] >> first and foremost we want to thank everybody for coming on out to our special session as we have another great conversation with a native baltimoreans. and what are the big things about the baltimore book festival the always beautiful is the highlight of offers from baltimore. and so today is not any different or quickly to continue to follow that tradition. but i have to say when the opportunity arose, who do you want to talk to, and they gave me the list, although \mr.{-|}\mister wes moore. so of the help of so foremost my name is farajii muhammad.