No More Champagne: Churchill and His Money

by David Lough Narrated by Michael Page

Overview

Meticulously researched by a senior private banker now turned historian, No More Champagne reveals for the first time the full extent of the iconic British war leader's private struggle to maintain a way of life instilled by his upbringing and expected of his public position.



Lough uses Churchill's own most private records, many never researched before, to chronicle his family's chronic shortage of money, his own extravagance, and his recurring losses from gambling or trading in shares and currencies. Churchill tried to keep himself afloat by borrowing to the hilt, putting off bills, and writing "all over the place"; when all else failed, he had to ask family or friends to come to the rescue. Yet within five years of the war, he had taken advantage of his worldwide celebrity to transform his private fortunes with the same ruthlessness as he waged war, reaching 1945 with today's equivalent of £3 million in the bank. His lucrative war memoirs were still to come.



Throughout the story, Lough highlights the threads of risk, energy, persuasion, and sheer willpower to survive that link Churchill's private and public lives. He shows how constant money pressures often tempted him to short-circuit the ethical standards expected of public figures in his day before usually pulling back to put duty first-except where the taxman was involved.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

★ 09/28/2015
Debut author Lough, an investment advisor, succeeds beyond any reasonable expectation in making this unique chronicle of Winston Churchill’s money problems fascinating, even for those with limited interest in financial matters. Lough traces Churchill’s spendthrift ways to his parents, Randolph and Jeanette, both from once-wealthy families contending with diminished resources by the time the two met in 1873. From a young age, the future prime minister was preoccupied with money (he would later say it was “the only thing that worries me in life”), and his family’s straitened circumstances led him and his brother to sell eggs for extra pocket money. As an adult, Churchill’s financial woes were often of his own making. To compensate, he became a prolific author, considering no commission too small or unimportant: in 1937, he was hired to write short summaries of four battles illustrated on jigsaw puzzles. Lough’s detailed, but fast-moving, narrative succeeds in making one of British history’s most prominent men more relatable; as Lough notes, “it is salutary to discover that one of the most successful political figures of the 20th century ran up huge personal debts, gambled heavily, lost large amounts on the stock exchange, avoided tax with great success, and paid his bills reluctantly.” Agent: Andrew Lownie, Andrew Lownie Literary Agency (U.K.). (Nov.)

From the Publisher

The money troubles—and solutions—that preoccupied Churchill, an aristocrat who cut his political teeth in a plutocratic age, make for spicy reading in our own increasingly plutocratic times...Lough, a banker himself...doggedly pursues the ins and outs of Churchill's finances.”—The Atlantic

"Astonishing revelations...This book makes you wholly rethink the received wisdom about the icon....There is still rich ore to be found in the best-mined streams."—The Guardian (London)

“[A] fascinating study of Churchill’s finances....No More Champagne recasts many aspects of Churchill’s well-known biography. Interestingly, for instance, Mr. Lough suggests that Churchill’s famous periods of depression, what he called his “black dog,” coincided just as much with low points in his finances as they did with political events.”—The Wall Street Journal

"David Lough’s No More Champagne may become a classic. It will transform the way that Churchill is interpreted and understood."—Timothy Congdon, The New Criterion

"A surprising page-turner."—The Economist (London)

"To view someone from just one angle is usually to deform them, but David Lough, drawing on compelling material including Churchill’s tax records, more than justifies his audit....Astonishing."—The Daily Telegraph (London)

"Debut author Lough, an investment advisor, succeeds beyond any reasonable expectation in making this unique chronicle of Winston Churchill’s money problems fascinating, even for those with limited interest in financial matters."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Just when you thought there could not be another angle to this endlessly fascinating character, here's a serious, thorough look at Winston Churchill's lifelong struggle to pay the bills....Chockablock with credits, debits, taxes, and inheritances, the book is nothing if not meticulous. Moving in a stringent chronology, the author's impressive nuts-and-bolts account finds Churchill's golden years crowned by selling his memoirs and film rights.” —Kirkus Reviews

“[Lough] is a courteous guide, whose knowledge of the arcane world of investment (and its pitfalls) enables him to explain what went wrong and how Churchill managed to scrape through. The result is a fascinating read.”—The Times (London)

“[An] excellent and entertaining work.”—Prospect (London)

“There is a voyeuristic thrill in peering into the finances of any famous family, and Lough supplies plenty of eye-opening detail to keep his narrative flowing. But Churchill buffs and economic historians too will find valuable insights in the light Lough sheds upon the man and his times.”—Financial Times (London)

“This book brilliantly illuminates one of the few unexplored aspects of Winston Churchill's life-his private finances. Based on a wealth of fresh documentary evidence, it also reveals much about his larger-than-life character. In these fascinating pages, Churchill emerges as extravagant in every way, especially in his addiction to risk.” —Piers Brendon, former Keeper of the Churchill Archives Centre

“David Lough's minutely researched and richly enjoyable study reveals Churchill's political career and private financial dealings are united by a common thread of exceptional risk-taking and extraordinary recklessness.” —Paul Mason, author of Postcapitalism

“Churchill made history. He also made money-and spent it. This fascinating piece of historical accountancy goes through the books and opens up new insights into the life and lifestyle of Britain's most famous twentieth-century leader.” —David Reynolds, author of In Command of History: Churchill Fighting and Writing the Second World War

"Lough exposes the reader to completely new elements in Churchill's thinking, which have remained largely untouched by biographers and historians...compelling." —History Today

author of In Command of History: Churchill Fig David Reynolds

Churchill made history. He also made money-and spent it. This fascinating piece of historical accountancy goes through the books and opens up new insights into the life and lifestyle of Britain's most famous twentieth-century leader.

Library Journal

09/15/2015
This well-written, deeply researched tome investigates the remarkably complex world of Winston Churchill's (1874–1965) financial affairs during the years he served as prime minister and into his retirement. In this debut, Lough, whose professional career includes involvement in both banking and finance, crafts a detailed account of Churchill's love-hate relationship with money. Poring through years of financial records that Churchill painstakingly kept, Lough traces the highs and lows of the man's finances. The politician was a heavy gambler and a brilliant writer; we learn that the second attribute was often essential in helping bail him out of the baleful effects of the first. The author explains how Churchill dabbled in various pursuits to booster his finances: authoring books, writing columns for the Evening Standard, speculating on stocks, investing in film, and reluctantly going on lecture tours. Also mentioned are his brother Jack, who assisted in paying debts, and Churchhill's wife, Clementine, who was adept at managing her husband's financial mishaps. VERDICT Even enthusiasts who think they've learned everything there is to know about Britain's most intriguing politician will find much to discover in this lengthy work. An important contribution to the vast literature on Churchill and recommended for most collections.—Ed Goedeken, Iowa State Univ. Lib., Ames

Kirkus Reviews

2015-08-16
Just when you thought there could not be another angle to this endlessly fascinating character, here's a serious, thorough look at Winston Churchill's lifelong struggle to pay the bills. Writing for hire allowed Churchill to keep the bank at bay over many decades, as noted scrupulously by English financial officer Lough, who asserts that, during his long career advising families about their finances, he has "never encountered risk-taking on Churchill's scale." Hailing from a family of spendthrifts, especially his American-born mother, Churchill recognized early on in his political career that he would have to supplement his official government salary by writing journalism, giving lectures, buying polo ponies, and speculating in the stock market, thanks to his financial guru brother, Jack. Like his mother, Churchill patronized only the best suppliers, and he was often scrambling to pay the bills, borrowing hugely to cover amounts owed to wine, cigar, shirt, and saddle merchants. His marriage to Clementine Hozier did not greatly add to his wealth, though his elevation to First Lord of the Admiralty in 1909 allowed him use of the HMS Enchantress and a fine Admiralty House in central London. While World War I impoverished a generation of Edwardian aristocracy, transforming them into a "new class of entrepreneurs," Churchill managed to inherit a tidy sum from a distant cousin in 1921, quickly depleted by the purchase of a country seat and the birth of his fifth child and prompting stock market speculation. (Miraculously, he was appointed chancellor of the exchequer in 1925.) The U.S. stock market crash wiped out Churchill's "new world fortune" (for each chapter, Lough offers a contemporary exchange rate and inflation multiples) without dampening his enthusiasm for America's "vitality…[to] help shape his wartime strategy a decade later." Chockablock with credits, debits, taxes, and inheritances, the book is nothing if not meticulous. Moving in a stringent chronology, the author's impressive nuts-and-bolts account finds Churchill's golden years crowned by selling his memoirs and film rights.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940177816449
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	08/11/2020
Edition description:	Unabridged

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