Publishers Weekly
07/03/2023
Historian Gray (Alexander Graham Bell) presents a compassionate and vivid double portrait of Jennie Jerome and Sara Delano, accomplished women of privilege whose “lives followed similar paths” that would overlap through their famous offspring: Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Both born in 1854, the two Gilded Age debutantes married into political families, became burdened with “an ailing husband,” and were widowed in their 40s with the means to live independently. After France’s Second Empire collapsed in 1870, Jerome’s family abandoned Paris for England, where she quickly met and married Lord Randolph Churchill. By age 26, Lady Churchill had two sons, many admirers (including the future Edward VII), and a husband with a debilitating illness (possibly syphilis). Meanwhile, after Delano became the second wife of widower James Roosevelt, who was 26 years her senior, she nursed him while homeschooling their young son, Franklin, until he left for Groton at 14. Delano became a national figure in her own right during her son’s presidency, while Jerome, who died 20 years before her son became prime minister, defied gender norms by spearheading her own projects, including a literary magazine. Gray strikes an expert balance between the big picture and intimate glimpses of each woman. It’s an enlightening study of two mothers’ crucial influence upon sons who would make history. (Sept.)
From the Publisher
Gray has managed to do the virtually impossible, and that is to say something new and perceptive about Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. With her usual keen eye for the telling detail and her sympathy for her subjects, she argues for the importance of the statesmen’s relationships with their two very different but forceful mothers.”
—Margaret MacMillan, New York Times bestselling author of Paris 1919 and War
“This is a spectacular book, brilliantly and magnetically written. It’s a story about the passionate love of two remarkable mothers and their two remarkable sons, but it’s also transcendently about all mothers and their sons.”
—Rosalie Abella, former Canadian Supreme Court justice and professor of law at Harvard Law School
“Entirely original and brilliant. Gray weaves together the parallel lives
of Sara Roosevelt and Jennie Churchill, as wives as well as mothers, and explores their fascinatingly dissimilar guidance of their famous sons’ futures. Fresh, original, superbly researched, and immensely readable.”
—Ronald Cohen, C.M., MBE, author of the three-volume Bibliography of the Writings of Sir Winston Churchill
“Charlotte Gray has put two truly remarkable women in the spotlight. Brilliantly conceived and wonderfully written, their lives and times are illuminated as never before.”
—Bob Rae, diplomat and author of What’s Happened to Politics?
“Fascinating, engaging, and thought-provoking insight into the lives and influence of two women whose impact on the course of world events has all too often been reviewed from the male gaze.”
—Eliza Reid, First Lady of Iceland and author of Secrets of the Sprakkar
“A compassionate and vivid double portrait of Jennie Jerome and Sara Delano...Gray strikes an expert balance between the big picture and intimate glimpses of each woman. It’s an enlightening study of two mothers’ crucial influence upon sons who would make history.”
—Publishers Weekly
“An engaging dual biography...Gray convincingly portray[s] her subjects as ambitious, astute, and determined. A sympathetic portrait of formidable women.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Gray’s impeccable research and insightful look into social constraints of the time bring these women to life, highlighting the often overlooked ways Jennie and Sara shaped not only their own destinies but those of their sons. Perfect for literary nonfiction, history, women’s-history, and biography readers.”
—Booklist
“If Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt had an idle moment when they met in 1941 to hammer out the Atlantic Charter, they might have talked about Roosevelt’s stamp-collecting or Churchill’s painting. It is perhaps less likely they chatted about one big thing they actually had in common: Strong, intelligent American mothers, widowed young, who provided them with plenty of runway for political takeoff....Through detailed historical research and scenic retellings, Gray makes a persuasive case that Franklin and Winston depended on their mothers’ devotion, influence and money. Had they been born a century later, one can imagine Jennie as a supermodel-turned-Hollywood producer and Sara as a Fortune 500 CEO. Instead, Gray tells us, they funneled their prodigious energies into their statesmen sons, both of whom were profoundly impacted by their fascinating and formidable mothers.”
—BookPage
"Ingeniously conceived and elegantly executed."
—Air Mail
"Gray’s most important accomplishment is to show that Jennie Churchill and Sara Roosevelt were far more than just mothers of history-making sons"
—NY Journal of Books
"An able corrective to the notion that great men are self-made...A compelling view to the life stories of two mothers who influenced the world through their sons.”
—Washington Independent Review of Books
Kirkus Reviews
2023-06-15
A portrait of the mothers who nurtured two prominent politicians.
Canadian historian Gray, author of Mrs. King and Sisters in the Wilderness, draws on abundant sources to create an engaging dual biography of Jennie Jerome Churchill (1854-1921), mother of Winston, and Sara Delano Roosevelt (1854-1941), mother of Franklin. The two had markedly different personalities, but “the examples of resilience, acumen, and loyalty that Jennie and Sara set, the initiatives they took, the impressive support that they provided, and the networks they built, helped mold their sons’ characters and careers.” Gray recounts each woman’s family background, childhood, and young adulthood, when each met her husband. Jennie, 19, “shapely and coquettish,” met 24-year-old Lord Randolph Churchill on a yacht where they were guests of the Prince and Princess of Wales; Sara was 26 when she married James Roosevelt, a widower twice her age, whom she had met at a small dinner party. For Jennie, the marriage meant entry into British aristocracy; for Sara, it meant alliance with a prestigious Knickerbocker family, though one not as wealthy as her own. Jennie’s first son was born seven months after the wedding; Sara’s only child—she was advised, after a difficult delivery, to have no more—was born in 1882. “Knowing there would be no more babies, she dedicated herself to protecting the one she had,” writes Gray. “From the day of his birth, her son would be the center of her attention.” Jennie’s marriage, like her husband’s political career, was stormy. The couple was always in debt, due in part to Jennie’s expensive tastes. “Her zest in spending was one of her charms,” a friend commented. Both were widowed in their 40s. While Jennie’s flirtatiousness and three marriages led gossips to call her a “wicked seductress,” Sara’s imperiousness made her daughter-in-law, Eleanor, portray her as “snobbish, domineering, and unkind.” Gray sees those stereotypes as ill-fitting, convincingly portraying her subjects as ambitious, astute, and determined.
A sympathetic portrait of formidable women.
