"A delightful and delicious tribute to Churchill's heroic appetite for wining, dining and politicking" - Ben Macintyre, author of Operation Mincemeat.
A friend once said of Churchill "He is a man of simple tastes; he is quite easily satisfied with the best of everything." But dinners for Churchill were about more than good food, excellent champagnes and Havana cigars. "Everything" included the opportunity to use the dinner table both as a stage on which to display his brilliant conversational talents, and an intimate setting in which to glean gossip and diplomatic insights, and to argue for the many policies he espoused over a long life. In this riveting, informative and entertaining book Cita Stelzer draws on previously untapped archival material, diaries of guests, and a wide variety of other sources to tell of some of the key dinners at which Churchill presided before, during and after World War II - including the important conferences at which he used his considerable skills to attempt to persuade his allies, Franklin Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin, to fight the war according to his strategic vision. With fascinating new insights into the food he ate, the champagnes he loved, as well as original menus, seating plans and unpublished photographs, Dinner with Churchill is a sumptuous treat. The next best thing to being there yourself.
Cita Stelzer is a freelance journalist and research associate at the Hudson Institute. She has worked for John Lindsay, Mayor of New York and Governor Hugh Carey. She is currently a reader at Churchill College, Cambridge, and a member of the Board of the Churchill Centre (UK). A freelance editor and journalist, and a Research Associate at the Hudson Institute, Cita Stelzer majored in history and went on to work for John Lindsay, Mayor of New York and Governor Hugh Carey. She is currently a reader at the Archives Centre at Churchill College, Cambridge, and a member of the Board of the Churchill Centre (UK), and Trustee of Wigmore Hall.
Table of Contents
Introduction Andrew Roberts xi
Prologue 1
Section 1
Chapter 1 The Importance of Dinners 15
Chapter 2 Meeting off Newfoundland August 1941 41
Chapter 3 Christmas in the White House December 1941-January 1942 58
Chapter 4 Dinners in Moscow August 1942 85
Chapter 5 Adana January 1943 95
Chapter 6 Teheran November 1943 100
Chapter 7 Yalta February 1945 114
Chapter 8 Meeting at Potsdam July 1945 133
Chapter 9 From Fulton to Bermuda: The Limits of Dinner-table Diplomacy 155
