‘The Splendid and the Vile’ – A Masterful and Idiosyncratic History

This superb work by Erik Larson portrays the opening year of Britain’s fight for its very survival at the beginning of WW II.  Larson cleverly and suspensefully weaves the war details along with the saga of the Churchill family, friends, and Churchill’s colleagues while documenting the indisputable:  Churchill was a man for the moment, giving credence to the argument that this man made the times as much as the times made the man.  He rose to the occasion, leavened by his uncanny and eloquent oratory skills. As Larson points out, and documents on many occasions in the book, he had the ability “to deliver dire news and yet leave his audience feeling encouraged and uplifted.”  Through the darkness of those days he buoyed the spirits of the British people.

Larson makes use of many types of primary source documents including Mary Churchill’s diary. His youngest daughter’s insights cast not only details on the Churchill’s family life, but a feeling of what it must have been to live through those times. He also makes use of the network of “Mass-Observation” diarists, “an organization launched in Britain two years before the war that recruited hundreds of volunteers to keep daily diaries with a goal of helping sociologists better understand ordinary British life. One volunteer wrote ‘if I had to spend my whole life with a man I choose Chamberlain, but I think I would sooner have Mr. Churchill if there was a storm and I was shipwrecked.’“  These sources give Larson’s work as special kind insight and personalization, often lacking in historical works.

The writing is exquisite, such as when Larson describes Hermann Göring who became, among many titled positions, the Chief of the Luftwaffe, who had promised Hitler that his air force could single-handedly destroy Britain. Larson says Göring was “large, buoyant, ruthless, cruel [and] had used his close connection to Hitler to win this commission, deploying the sheer strength of his ebullient and joyously corrupt personality to overcome Hitler’s misgivings.” He gleefully went about the task of introducing hell on earth first in London, and then in smaller UK towns to break the will of the British people. Massive incendiary bombings preceded the heavy bombings to light the way for the German bombers.

The Luftwaffe had developed a guidance system which a young Dr. Reginald Jones discovered, and he was unexpectedly whisked into a Churchill Cabinet meeting to present his evidence. Here Larson writes a suspenseful narrative:  “Churchill listened, wrapped, his fascination for secret technologies in full flare but he also realized the bleak significance of Jones‘s discovery. It was bad enough that the Luftwaffe was establishing itself at bases in captured territory just minutes from the English coast. But now he understood that the aircraft at those bases will be able to bomb accurately even a moonless night and in overcast weather. To Churchill, this was dark news indeed ‘one of the blackest moments of the war.’…Until this point he had been confident that the RAF could hold its own, despite being, as air intelligence believed vastly outnumbered by the Luftwaffe….If the German planes could bomb accurately even in heavy overcast and on the darkest nights, they would no longer need their swarms of fighter escorts and no longer be restrained by the fighters’ fuel limits and they could traverse the British Isles without restriction, a tremendous advantage and laying the groundwork for invasion.”

London was always one of my favorite places to visit, and I did so frequently either on my way to the Frankfurt Bookfairs or attending the London Bookfairs and seeing our selling partners there and arrange for co-publishing projects with several British publishers.  So many personal landmarks are conjured up by this work and in my mind’s eye I can see them and imagine how they would have been then, Piccadilly, the British Museum, Hyde Park, the financial district, the River Thames, Covent Garden, and London’s wonderful underground system, which was used as bomb shelters, not always successfully.  Frequently, Londoners would have to choose whether they might potentially be buried alive or allow it to fate to stay in their homes.

The first time we stayed in London was the early 1970’s at the Dorchester. Larson reveals the Dorchester was highly sought after by ambassadors during the war because it was a poured concrete building and billed as “bombproof,“ although people evacuated the top floor during the heaviest bombings.  He describes a debutante party at Grosvenor hotel, also facing Hyde Park, the Dorchester only blocks away to the south. The ball -- where Mary Churchill had been “presented“ the year before -- took place in May 1940 on a night when there was one of the heaviest bombings and Larson spares no detail regarding the horror of that night, even decapitations, people fleeing for the safety of the Dorchester. I just had no idea until reading this work that where I stayed only thirty years later that this was part of its history..

Churchill knew that Britain was at the end of a tenuous string, that it was imperative on the one hand he impress FDR with his people’s resiliency, but on the other hand signal their need for massive help from the U.S.  FDR’s hands were tied by the election, the cry for isolationism at home, and Larson amusingly paints a picture of Churchill’s puzzlement:  if he is the President of the US, why can’t he just do it?  Ultimately, Pearl Harbor, which occurs after the purview of this book, resolves the issue of the USA’s involvement, a great relief to Churchill, but in the interim it was the Lend Lease Act which helped to fortify Britain’s resolve.

The role of Churchill’s deliberations at Chequers, the country house of the Prime Minister, about 40 miles NW of London, on most weekends except when there was a full moon leaving it vulnerable to night bombing, the locale then shifting to Ditchley Park, owned by a friend, and located in Oxfordshire, a home that was more difficult to see from the air, cannot be understated.  In these places Churchill would “hold court” with his entire staff, generals, ambassadors, anyone involved in the war effort, to talk openly and until late at night frequently his family also residing there.

It was there that Churchill befriended and impressed FDR’s personal emissary, Harry Hopkins who in turn became an important intermediary to persuade FDR.  One night Hopkins stayed up till 4:30 in the morning and writing FDR “the people here are amazing from Churchill down and if courage alone can win – the result will be inevitable. But they need our help desperately and I’m sure you will permit nothing to stand in his way.” Hopkins continues: “Churchill held sway over the entire British government and understood every aspect of the war….I cannot emphasize too strongly that he is the one and only person with whom you need to have a full meeting of the minds. This island needs our help now Mr. President with everything we can give them.“  This ultimately led to the Lend Lease Act.

A leitmotif in the work is the personal letters of so many of Churchill’s associates such as those of John Colville, one of Churchill’s secretaries, who expresses throughout the period his endless unrequited love towards Gay Margesson, a student at Oxford.  Or the unusual relationship Churchill had with a “longtime friend and occasional antagonist Max Aitken –Lord Beaverbrook – a man who drew controversy the way steeples draw lightning.”  He had made his fortune in newspapers, but Churchill recognized a special kind of genius, appointing him as Minister of Aircraft Production, a new position to get around the red tape of the military.  Churchill knew that building the RAF was the key to defending Britain and production had lagged.  He needed a trusted mover-and-shaker and Beaverbrook was it.  His friend made enemies, circumventing traditional channels, but he significantly increased fighter production.  On a number of occasions, he tried to resign but Churchill was able to inveigle him back to the yoke and gave him more and more responsibility for a number of projects.

Throughout it all his wife Clementine was a steadying keel and did not hesitate to be outspoken with guests, be they ambassadors or the military, and of course with her husband.  She too did not suffer fools lightly and managed the family life (not tolerating their son Randolph’s drunkenness and gambling).

There are so many “players” in this history that reads like a novel, too many to mention.  Larson answers one of the questions that came to my mind before reading this work.  Why?  There are so many books about the period and Churchill.  9/11 had something do to with Larson’s motivation.  He got to wonder how Londoners could endure the never-ending shock of the war.  He endeavored to rely on more than the standard histories: “I set out to hunt for the stories that often get left out of the massive biographies of Churchill, either because there’s no time to tell them or because they seem too frivolous.  But it is the frivolity that Churchill revealed himself, the little moments which endeared him to his staff, despite the demands he placed on all.”  Larson captures those moments along with the grand and frightening story.  He also thanks, by name, the entire publishing staff of Random House and Crown who brought this insightful book to life.  It was wonderful reading the hardcover edition, so handsomely designed, a treasure to keep. 

 

London Leg of Overseas Trip

I already posted a few pictures of our trip to London and the return via sea, nearly a full month beginning the end of August.  My hope was to post more photographs and let them do the talking; thus this entry on the London leg of the trip. Another one will follow on the transit from Southampton, England, to New York City.

The full narrative on the trip can be found here. 

My years as a publisher brought me to London and Frankfurt on a regular basis, particularly for their book fairs.  My company published academic, reference, and professional books, mostly in the social sciences and the humanities.  There was a substantial market for those publications aboard and to effectively distribute our books throughout Europe we partnered with a relatively young firm at the time, Eurospan, which was run by its charismatic founder, Peter Geelan. Danny Maher was the chief financial officer and over the years we became close to Peter’s family and Danny’s as well.  Our youngest son, Jonathan, was a few years younger than Danny’s two daughters.  We made it a point to visit them at their home in west London. 

There, Danny and Pat, his wife, would prepare a typical English Sunday dinner, our two families, including Danny’s mother (“Mum”) growing closer over the years.  They came to our home in Connecticut to stay with us as well.

After Peter died, his son, Michael, who had been working with Peter, took over the business with Danny.  I also had a close relationship with Peter’s middle son, Jeremy,professionally and personally, who tragically died recently of pancreatic cancer.

So, that sets the stage for our London visit, the main reason was to reconnect with people we consider “family.”

I already posted a similar picture of our “reunion” but this one was with another camera, so I repost:

Our visit to the Eurospan offices, where they’ve been all these years in the heart of Covent Garden but soon will be relocating...

An interesting contrast, Michael, Danny, and me in 1980 and one of us at the recent reunion dinner...

And another English Sunday dinner feast, prepared by Danny and Pat’s daughters, Claire and Lisa, and served at Lisa’s home...

Part of this nostalgic tour was to revisit our “old neighborhood.”  We used to stay at The Cavendish London Hotel near Jermyn St and made a regular routine to visit the exquisite Fortnum and Mason as well as dining at Rowleys...

Then, via underground to Oxford Street.: Ann wanted to do some shopping and I wanted to see Selfridges again, especially after enjoying the BBC/PBS series.  It is impressive how they’ve maintained the building and their high standards...

A trip to London demands time in its great museums and galleries. Here is the National Gallery entrance....

But our greatest pleasure was spending a day at the V&A – the Victoria and Albert Museum.  Its decorative arts and design collection is unparalleled.  Ann’s particular interest was the exhibit from the Jane Austen era.  Here you can see her posing behind one of the waistcoat dresses of the time...

In fact, as I write this, Ann is attending the Jane Austen Society of North America conference in Washington with sister “Janeites.”

Other related exhibits are a music room and sitting area from that era...

I liked the contemporary hanging design entitled Breathless at V&A which is Silver-plated brass wind instruments, flattened and suspended on stainless steel wire...

It was a hot day, even for London when we visited the V&A and having the requisite Scones and Tea for a very late lunch, emerging into an unusually warm day for London...

Not to visit the London stage while there would be heresy.  The narrative link describes the five performances we saw, the one disappointment was not being able to see the Outdoor Theatre performance of Pride and Prejudice in its entirety because of rain.  Here we are having pre-theatre dinner outdoors on the site, in the rain of course!...

I tried to get shots of the stages of the other four plays we saw but was unable to get one for The Entertainer.  Here are ones for In the Heights, The Go Between, and The Truth...

And those are certainly the highlights of our memorable London visit.  And so after a very full week there, we departed for Southampton to board a ship for our transatlantic journey.   That photographic story can be found here.

Danny

Most of this entry is a “guest post” by my long-time colleague and friend, Danny, who is responding to When a man is tired of London. Our family became close to Danny, his wife, Pat, and his two beautiful daughters, Lisa and Claire. We visited them while we were in London and they stayed with us on a few occasions at our home in Weston, Connecticut.

While Danny was the head of finance at Eurospan, he brought a special gentle demeanor to the position, always so approachable, and with a wonderful droll sense of humor. The two other principals in the business, Peter and his son Michael, were about twenty five years apart in age and I was smack in the middle, along with Danny, so it was not surprising that our two families connected so closely.

Soon after my father died in 1984 I had to go to London on business. Ann and Jonathan accompanied me on that trip. I asked Danny whether we could plant a peace rose bush in my father’s memory in his backyard, something we could see kaleidoscopically grow over the years when we visited. I thought such a gesture particularly appropriate as my father was briefly stationed in the UK during WWII and the Pinner section of London so closely resembled the area of Queens where he lived all his life.

Ann and I flew to Paris for a celebration to mark Eurospan’s 35th anniversary in 2000 and to commemorate Danny’s association with the firm from the beginning (photo to the left is of Danny and Pat at the anniversary). I was asked to say a few words, which of course I was happy to do: “35 years is an eternity for many firms in the publishing business. Eurospan must be doing something right to not only survive in the competitive world of book distribution, but to prosper – even in this dot.com era. The genius of Peter, carried on by his son Michael has much to do with this success story but there is another person who bridges those two generations, someone who has done a lot of the heavy lifting. You might say he is the bulwark of Eurospan. Indeed much of Eurospan’s success is due to his hard work and dedication. So congratulations to you, Danny.”


Danny is now retired, as am I. Our children are now fully grown as the photo to the left attests, one of Ann with Lisa and Claire when we visited London after the anniversary. But we will always feel a profound connection, although an ocean away. If my blog does nothing else but to stir the memories of close friends and colleagues I will consider the effort worthwhile. Here was Danny’s email reaction to When a man is tired of London:

What a wonderful blog entry! It really did bring back memories of happy times, and we of course have copies of several of the photos that you have shown. Yes, what memories Number 3(Henrietta Street) carries. Overlooking a busy fruit and vegetable market when we moved in, where we often bought top grade fruit to take home. Certainly the filming of Frenzy before we moved in is fact, as a number of shots in and outside the building are totally recognisable. There was the author/photographer who planned to publish ''Alfred Hitchcock's London'', and took great delight in taking a photo of me 'strangling' one of our staff in the office that Barry Foster performed some of his evil deeds. Also, looking down from my window and seeing Jack Lemmon, who was appearing in a play here, looking up at the building, and me not thinking to simply invite him in before he wandered off. The apparent truth in the story that The Duke of Wellington's mother lived at No. 3, though I think we could not establish absolute confirmation of this when we had the building researched.

The parties at No. 3, and you playing the piano, I think with Howard on the squeeze box (if not on the same occasion then certainly on others). Finally the ghost, that I am as certain as I can be that I saw at the top of the stairs to the basement when closing up the building late one night. Memories, and particularly of you, Ann, Jonathan and Chris when you visited. As mentioned, we do have copies of several of the photos you have shown. I know I have those of the girls skipping along with Jonathan (at the time I think we threw an American football between us in the road outside the house), and the cabbage patch dolls, though I think I would need to dig around among so many others from The UK and The US that we have to find them. Those I do have are the pair you took of the girls in the garden when quite young, to include the one of Lisa that you captured with the sun shining onto her cheeks through the trees, that are both still on our fireplace.

Then there was the fabulous family visit with you, and the memories we all cherish. This to include the night we spent on your boat with the children, being woken because you found the anchor had slipped, and then the wonderful show that the balloons made as they rose into the sky as we made our way back. Also the bay we visited, when the wind whipped up to what I think you described as 'washing machine water', and gave us a bit of a rocky ride in what seemed such lovely weather. Our introduction to Japanese food, with I think a conjuror providing some entertainment as we ate.

Discussing the night on your boat with the girls, Lisa reminded me that there was also an incredible display of 'shooting stars' before we went to bed, followed by the balloons next morning. (Not sure if you use the phrase, but shooting stars is 'English' for meteorites). And when you were at our house, as well as throwing the football, you tried to teach me the finer points of pitching a baseball – by throwing our home-grown apples at a tree trunk. I remember you being a rather talented pitcher!

Claire just mentioned the restaurant you took us to that Paul Newman regularly ate in, and I recall the story of his having been with Robert Redford when they left a car in the Greenwood car park. Another photo we have is of the four Mahers on your boat, that you had mounted on card, and which still sits on our sideboard in the lounge.

We also recall your call when the armed police were crawling over the roofs opposite your hotel bedroom, how nervous you were about getting to your flight the next day, and how we had a taxi driver we knew collect you. Also I recall the story of you alighting from a boat and kissing the ground, though I can not remember what had happened. Many experiences, adventures, and good memories - of both London and Connecticut. (Not forgetting Frankfurt, and among other things standing in front of Colonel Gadaffi's picture at the Libyan stand and falling about laughing, perhaps as retaliation to your experience in the Cavendish Hotel).

Having looked back, let us hope President Obama and the initiatives being shown around the world will indeed lead us to a brighter future than we seem to be currently facing.

Thanks for the memories Bob!

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When a man is tired of London…

...he is tired of life. Samuel Johnson uttered those famous words to his biographer James Bosewell some two hundred and thirty years ago. I’m still basking in the glow of President Obama’s and First Lady Michelle’s London visit to attend the G-20, replaying in my mind the images of London, our President’s news conference and Michelle’s moving visit to a girls school in Islington, north London.

If I could live in any place other than where we have, I would choose London. I often visited there during my career usually to confer with our distributor, Eurospan, run by my late dear friend, the charismatic Peter Geelan. I would also see numerous UK publishers with whom we traded copublications, or go to the London Bookfair, or stop by London on my way to the Frankfurt Bookfair.

Frequently Ann would accompany me for the London part of the trip so we managed some vacation time there as well. After staying at several London hotels, including the Dorchester where we had to nearly pole vault into our bed at night, we sort of settled at The Cavendish, which in the Edwardian era was run by Rosa Lewis, the infamous “Duchess of Duke St.” Located across from Fortnum and Mason on the corner of Duke and Jermyn Streets, it is ideally situated near Trafalgar Square, St. James and Piccadilly Circus, the heart of London’s great theatre district where we went as often as our schedule allowed. So it was at this hotel where I would meet Ann during my business travels, and later, we brought Jonathan as well, the first time as young as 14 months old. Here Ann is stepping out of a London taxi having just arrived for one of those visits.

We were at the Cavendish when a young British policewoman was killed in 1984, shot by someone from the nearby Libyan Embassy on St. James Place. Between the Irish Republican Army threats and other clouds of terrorism, traveling in London was sometimes filled with anxiety, but the British people take such adversity in stride. The Cavendish became an armed camp during the standoff with the Libyan Embassy and right outside our window, which had a view to the Embassy, there were police sharpshooters. We slept on a mattress on the floor that evening, along with 8-year-old Jonathan, all of us anxious to stay out of the line of fire. We were leaving the following morning and that standoff lasted at least a week longer.

I treasured going to Eurospan’s offices at 3 Henrietta Street facing the venerable Covent Garden. This area is rich in literary tradition. Number 3 had housed the publishing home of Gerald Duckworth, Virginia Woolf's stepbrother and no doubt Henry James and John Galsworthy had visited as well, as Duckworth published both. Jane Austen’s brother Henry, a banker, lived at 10 Henrietta Street and she had stayed there when in London, saying the house was “all dirt and confusion, but in a very interesting way.”

The scenes from My Fair Lady that were filmed in Covent Garden were right outside the door of 3 Henrietta Street and, according to Peter, a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's 1972 film Frenzy was made in the building itself. As per Wikipedia, “much of the location filming was done in and around Covent Garden and was an homage to the London of Hitchcock's childhood. The son of a Covent Garden merchant, Hitchcock filmed several key scenes showing the area as the working produce market that it was. Aware that the area's days as a market were numbered, Hitchcock wanted to record the area as he remembered it….The buildings seen in the film are now occupied by restaurants and nightclubs, and the laneways where merchants and workers once carried their produce are now occupied by tourists and street performers.”

Of course, I remember when Covent Garden was a public square mainly devoted to the fruit and vegetable market, but in its transformation to today’s tourist attraction, its character was mostly retained. Eliza Doolittle might still recognize it while selling flowers from the portico of St Paul's.

While meetings with Eurospan would easily last the entire day, there was always time for fun in the evenings, sometimes a party at the offices itself, or at Peter’s flat, typically ending in a crowd moving on to dinner at a nearby favorite restaurant. And in those days, and since, London has some of the best food in the world if you’re the guest of someone in the know. When I retired, Peter’s son, Michael who took over the business with his partner, Danny, who was in charge of finance, presented me with a montage of photos of those years, which I proudly display on my bookshelf next to my desk.

When Jonathan was along, Ann and I made it a point to journey by underground to Pinner in west London to visit Danny and his family. Over the years we became close to them and they visited us in the US as well. When my older son Chris, who was a superb high school soccer player, was invited to play in Europe, he stayed with their family and visited English football clubs with Danny, who played competitive amateur football.

Here we are with Mum (Danny’s mother), his wife, Pat, and their two beautiful daughters, Claire and Lisa. I can still see them all in my mind’s eye, as they were in the photograph here skipping down the streets of Pinner, so reminiscent of the streets of Kew Gardens near where I grew up, obviously modeled after these London environs. One year I hand carried Cabbage Patch dolls for his girls so they would be the first in the UK to have the “prestigious” dolls. When they were introduced in the early 1980’s around Christmas time in the US, there were long lines and even fistfights to get one. Ann was not to be messed with though when she waited on line for them at a local toy store before we journeyed to London.

So I watched the Obama news coverage with a mix of nostalgia and pride, reminded not only of the special kinship the United States has with the United Kingdom but also of my own close personal ties. It was my fervent hope that as President, because of his political views, his multicultural background, and his leadership abilities, Obama would help repair what, by any objective measure, was diminished respect for the United States abroad.

What better place to start than London town? I had not anticipated what First Lady Michelle would bring to the table. Her speech to the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School, her genuine, heartfelt emotion, and the outpouring of love to her resonates with reciprocal devotion. And who could not be impressed by the arm in arm embrace with the Queen?

Repairing a tarnished reputation takes time, it takes mutual respect; and if the G-20 accomplished nothing else, it seems to have established the right direction. Perhaps a new sense of confidence begins to percolate the world economy as well because of agreements made at the G-20. So much remains to be seen on that score and I have been pessimistic by the accelerating debt that is being incurred. But as economics relates to trust, in the system, and between nations, this may be a start to break the vicious cycle of gloom and doom.

I was struck by President Obama’s news conference, where he seems so much at ease, affable, and his responses clearly belie the attacks by some of his critics as his being teleprompter dependent (as if his predecessor was not). I conclude with the question that was posed by Jonathan Weisman, the Washington Post Congressional reporter, about America’s standing in the world and our President’s reply. It’s the kind of truth that does inspire the “hope” that became a campaign mantra.

Q: Thank you, Mr. President. During the campaign you often spoke of a diminished power and authority of the United States over the last decade. This is your first time in an international summit like this, and I'm wondering what evidence you saw of what you spoke of during the campaign. And specifically, is the declaration of the end of the Washington consensus evidence of the diminished authority that you feared was out there?

OBAMA: Well, first of all, during the campaign I did not say that some of that loss of authority was inevitable. I said it was traced to very specific decisions that the previous administration had made that I believed had lowered our standing in the world. And that wasn't simply my opinion; that was, it turns out, the opinion of many people around the world.

I would like to think that with my election and the early decisions that we've made, that you're starting to see some restoration of America's standing in the world. And although, as you know, I always mistrust polls, international polls seem to indicate that you're seeing people more hopeful about America's leadership.

Now, we remain the largest economy in the world by a pretty significant margin. We remain the most powerful military on Earth. Our production of culture, our politics, our media still have — I didn't mean to say that with such scorn, guys ... you know I'm teasing — still has enormous influence. And so I do not buy into the notion that America can't lead in the world. I wouldn't be here if I didn't think that we had important things to contribute.

I just think in a world that is as complex as it is, that it is very important for us to be able to forge partnerships as opposed to simply dictating solutions. Just a — just to try to crystallize the example, there's been a lot of comparison here about Bretton Woods. "Oh, well, last time you saw the entire international architecture being remade." Well, if there's just Roosevelt and Churchill sitting in a room with a brandy, that's a — that's an easier negotiation. But that's not the world we live in, and it shouldn't be the world that we live in.

And so that's not a loss for America; it's an appreciation that Europe is now rebuilt and a powerhouse. Japan is rebuilt, is a powerhouse. China, India — these are all countries on the move. And that's good. That means there are millions of people — billions of people — who are working their way out of poverty. And over time, that potentially makes this a much more peaceful world.

And that's the kind of leadership we need to show — one that helps guide that process of orderly integration without taking our eyes off the fact that it's only as good as the benefits of individual families, individual children: Is it giving them more opportunity; is it giving them a better life? If we judge ourselves by those standards, then I think America can continue to show leadership for a very long time.

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