Hero of the Empire: the Boer War, a Daring Escape and the Making of Winston Churchill by Candice Millard

Hero of the Empire: the Boer War, a Daring Escape and the Making of Winston Churchill by Candice Millard
400 pages

"At age twenty-four, Winston Churchill was utterly convinced it was his destiny to become prime minister of England one day, despite the fact he had just lost his first election campaign for Parliament. He believed that to achieve his goal he must do something spectacular on the battlefield. Despite deliberately putting himself in extreme danger as a British Army officer in colonial wars in India and Sudan, and as a journalist covering a Cuban uprising against the Spanish, glory and fame had eluded him.

"Churchill arrived in South Africa in 1899, valet and crates of vintage wine in tow, there to cover the brutal colonial war the British were fighting with Boer rebels. But just two weeks after his arrival, the soldiers he was accompanying on an armored train were ambushed, and Churchill was taken prisoner. Remarkably, he pulled off a daring escape--but then had to traverse hundreds of miles of enemy territory, alone, with nothing but a crumpled wad of cash, four slabs of chocolate, and his wits to guide him."  --from the publisher

This was a very interesting book about the feats and foibles of Churchill. It certainly makes one think about the part destiny plays in one's life. There is also much to discuss about the ongoing conflict between people groups over land and resources. It was chosen for me by my book club, and I'm glad it was.

Mr. Churchill's Secretary by Susan Elia MacNeal

Mr. Churchill's Secretary by Susan Elia MacNeal - 373 pages

In this first in a series, readers are introduced to the series heroine, Maggie Hope, and her cohorts.  Maggie is British-born but American-raised. The year before World War II began, the budding mathematician returned to England to sell her grandmother's home but ended up staying due to her new friends.  In the spring of 1940, one of those friends is instrumental in getting Maggie a job as one of Winston Churchill's secretaries.  She reluctantly takes the typist job, wanting instead of be one of the private secretaries in charge of conducting research.  But there are some things Maggie doesn't know that affect her role in #10 Downing and the War Rooms that lead her to becoming indirectly involved in a spy game between MI-5 and the Abwehr.  Besides the action/mystery side of the story, readers also gain an understanding on life on the domestic front for the Brits as Maggie and her friends, especially co-workers/Churchill's private secretaries David Greene and John Sterling, enjoy London's nightlife.

Elegy for Eddie: A Maisie Dobbs Novel by Jacqueline Winspear

Elegy  for Eddie: A Maisie Dobbs Novel by Jacqueline Winspear --- 331 pages

In 1933 Great Britain is still gripped by the Depression and the lingering personal and social malaise of the Great War. An entire generation, continuing to pay the terrible toll exacted by that war, watches numbly as the tides of war rise to engulf them once again.

Maisie Dobbs tells herself she is happy. Her hard work is reaping its reward, and her private inquiry agency is established and successful. She has achieved not just financial security but real wealth, now that she has inherited the fortune of her late mentor, Maurice Blanche, and can continue and expand upon his good work among the poor and suffering. Her devoted lover, James Compton, is willing and able to transport her to a life of affluence and privilege; she has only to say the word, and they will be married. Maisie knows she should be happy --- and yet she is not. At odd moments she even feels a panicked sense of suffocation.

When old mates of her father Frankie, costermongers from Lambeth, the neighborhood where she lived as a child, ask Maisie to investigate the suspicious "accident" that killed Eddie Pettit, she is eager to help. Eddie, a guileless, gentle man with an amazing rapport for horses, and his mother Maudie, are treasured friends from Maisie's childhood. Honest, kindly and inoffensive people, without an enemy in the world, she would have said.

But when Maisie begins to look more closely into the circumstances surrounding Eddie's "accident," and his unusual behavior in the weeks just before his death, she begins to suspect that this simple man had been drawn, unwillingly, into a very high stakes game indeed, played by powerful and ruthless men who are convinced that the end they seek justifies any and all means. And, even more troubling, there are people whom Maisie respects and admires, who are willing participants in their conspiracy to sway public opinion.