By Roy Jenkins
“I do not believe that biography demands or even necessarily profits from personal knowledge.” Roy Jenkins, Churchill: A Biography
Roy Jenkins sends us on our biographical voyage with his somewhat self-effacing disclaimer. I think he knows better. Certainly, one need not be a colleague of his biographical subject, but readers of Churchill: A Biography reap the first-hand benefits of those guided by a contemporary, even if our esteemed biographer was a later associate.
Roy Jenkins (1920-2003) was former president of the European commission, an accomplished author (Gladstone, Asquith, FDR), and a member of Parliament during Churchill’s second premiership. As Jenkins notes, “I suppose I can also claim to have had the widest parliamentary and ministerial experience of his biographers" (xiii).
That fact is to our benefit. Jenkins’ work stands apart from those I have read for its depth of political context (times/events/issues/people), exquisite use of language, and penetrating analysis of the man he calls, “the greatest human being ever to occupy 10 Downing St" (912).
There are many treats for those who open this biographical box:
Depth of political/historical context: In Biography as High Adventure, Stephen B. Oates writes, "By telling a story, the pure biographer hopes to engage our hearts as well as our minds" (p. xi). Jenkins does this.
Jenkins gives us Churchill, but our perspective is deepened by our biographer's grasp of the context. One example will suffice. In 1933, Churchill was sending early warning signals of the dangers of the growing Hitler menace (p. 469). Churchill was sounding the alarm in the House of Commons, but his speech was unheeded, even derided by fellow members. Why? Jenkins' work is masterful here as he identifies several factors that led to Churchill being ignored rather than celebrated (chapter 25, pp. 471-475), notably Churchill's previous failure, repugnant attacks on members of parliament, unfavorable stance on India, and inability to see how his own sentiments on war clashed with a nation still reeling from WWI. Here is a portion of Jenkin's comments:
Even without India he was less effective in bringing the bulk of the Conservative party round to the need for rearmament that was the softly nudging approach of flabby old Baldwin (Prime Minister 1935-1937), as he dismissively regarded him. Mainly because of India, but also because of his clanging anti-utopianism, Churchill had got himself into a box of isolation. He was an alarm clock, but he was a rasping one, which made most listeners more anxious to turn it off than to respond to its summons. (p. 474).
Employment of language: Few can match Churchill's mastery of the English language, but Jenkins too knows how to deploy the king's English. This biography is a delight to read. The reader will discover:
1. Insightful summary assessments:
About Lord Randolph: "he had the gift of insolence."
About Lord Salsbury's response to Lord Churchill's resignation: "But Salisbury already had more than enough. He was a better if quieter tactician than Churchill. And he was not a man to resist the suicide of a nuisance. Lord Randolph was out for good" (p. 17).
About Churchill's second premiership: "he was gloriously unfit for office" (p. 853).
2. Gentle humor:
About Sir Laming Worthington–Evans, Churchill’s successor as War Secretary, Jenkins comments, "[he] is a one-man proof that length of name offers no guarantee of lasting fame” (p. 365).
3. Use of metaphor:
Churchill is a master of word pictures. His descriptions are vivid and delightful:
“[Churchill] looks like a bird which was bound to beat its wings against whatever ceiling was placed above it" (p. 122).
About Churchill’s inquisitiveness: “his natural instinct was to shake any apple tree within reach to get as much fruit off it as he possibly could” (p. 143).
In reference to Hitler‘s desire to annex the rump of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, Jenkins writes: “1939, after the clashes of 1938, was for Churchill a year of rowing back towards the shore of government, although he, with a degree of justification, regarded it as a period in which the shore of government move more to meet him" (p.539).
Mastery of language is not mastery of subject, but in Jenkins' work the two go hand-in-hand.
Parliamentary and political analysis: As noted, Jenkins was a later contemporary, but his parliamentary expertise is to our benefit. For instance, in reference to WSC’s apparent political flip flop of 1938, Jenkins observes:
However no one who has ever been through the process of trying to remain within a party while disagreeing with its leadership on the central issue of the day should be inclined to criticize [Churchill] for this. The minor votes against one’s conviction, the attempts to set an artificial line and to confine rebellion to big issues, are all too familiar a feature of party politics, incomprehensible to those outside the game, but necessary, even to those who consider themselves brave, if they seek, however loosely, to operate within its frame (535).
And this bit of commentary relative to WSC's second premiership:
Whether or not any other Prime Minister of either party would have done better on this front may be doubtful. What is more certain is that the sin of omission of the second Churchill government was that it failed to impart any new dynamic into the post-war British economy (p. 853).
And this assessment/explanation for Churchill's pro-Stalin comments at the Yalta Conference in 1945:
WSC said, “I walk through this world with greater courage and hope when I find myself in a relation of friendship and intimacy with this great man, whose fame has gone out not only all over Russia, but the world." And later, WSC said, "We feel we have a friend whom we can trust.” Of course Churchill changed his estimation shortly thereafter, but about this effuse praise Jenkins writes, “Allowance must obviously be made for the headiness of the circumstances, and it can also be pleaded in mitigation that Churchill was frank about his flattery (which was largely reciprocated), publishing the text of the bouquets in his 1954 last volume of war memoirs." (p. 781) It was Churchill being a very frank Winston Churchill.
Delightfully, while Jenkins is fond of Churchill, he does not grovel before him, as indicated in his summation regarding WSCs second premiership, about which he comments: "It is impossible to reread the details of Churchill’s life as Prime Minister of the second government without feeling that he was gloriously unfit for office. The oxymoron is appropriate to the contradictions of his performance” (p. 845).
I love to read biography in general, and Churchill in particular, for the leadership lessons. Here are five:
Leadership lesson #1 -- Leadership is stewardship.
A young Churchill (about 25), seeing his political future, wrote, "This life is vy pleasant and I pass the time quickly and worthily -- but I have no right to dally in the pleasant valley of amusement. What an awful thing it will be if I don't come off (p. 44). Of course, some of this (most?) was fueled by ambition and his belief that, following family tradition, his life would be short-lived (p. 88). Jenkins highlights Churchill's incessant activity throughout his biography. "He never did nothing" (p. 186). He was a driven man (p. 211). Paul's words come to mind, "What do you have that you have not been given?" And "Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful" (1 Corinthians 4:7,1).
Leadership lesson #2 -- Understand your rhythms.
To borrow from Gordon MacDonald, a leader must understand his/her rhythms for maximum effectiveness. Churchill survived on eight hours of sleep, however, not eight consecutive hours. Clementine Churchill said he had to have eight in a 24-hour period. Churchill loved baths, took two every day, and even carried a bathtub and heating device when traveling. He worked late into early mornings, but he also took (religiously) an afternoon nap, complete with getting into his pajamas. The same is true with his holidays. As noted, “He never did nothing: his relaxations were above all conversation, with a high ratio of talking to listening, over long indulgent meals, painting (after 1915). His rhythmical idiosyncrasies included bricklaying, watching films, and especially in his later years, playing bezique. His holidays included a ferocious amount of work, especially writing as he turned out 31 volumes.
Leadership Lesson #3 -- Take the time to look ahead.
Churchill's prescience is legendary. This came from his analytical mind, historical perspective, and willingness to think, think long, and think ahead (see pages 204, 526, 527, 814).
Leadership Lesson #4 -- Your team and friends make all the difference.
Churchill relied on Brendan Bracken (his fixer), Max Beaver Brook (“some take drugs, I take Max”), “the prof” (F.A. Lindemann), secretaries such as John Jock Covell and Montague Brown (903), and a host of stenographers and research assistants.
Leadership Lesson #5 -- Failure is temporary.
For Churchill attitude did make the difference. Jenkins frequently notes Churchill's "black dog" (depression), a phrase (not the depressive spats) which biographer Andrew Roberts (Churchill: Walking With Destiny) discounts as actually appearing very little. That said, failure and depressive moods accompany every leader and Churchill was no exception (the Dardanelles "fiasco" and political consequence being most notable). The point with which Jenkins counters is this: “Yet one of his major virtues [was] that he never allowed even dismal failure to drive him slinking into his bunker ....” (p 470).
As with other biographies of England's bulldog, Jenkins includes a generous amount of Churchillian quips, quotes, and anecdotes. Here is a sampling:
1. Nicolas Soames, recounting the question he asked of his grandfather when Soames was about six and had sneaked past the guards into Churchill's office, “Grandpa, is it true that you are the greatest man in the world?" Churchill said: “Yes, and now bugger off” (p. 849).
2. In reference to fellow MP's Thornton-Kemsley's letter of regret over attacks of WSC regarding his Nazi warnings as being unfounded, Churchill wrote, “So far as I’m concerned the past is dead” (p. 543).
3. On responsibility and power: “Nor could I conscientiously accept responsibility without power” (p. 285).
4. On war: "War is a game to be played with a smiling face" (p. 299).
5. On the rare occasion (only time in 25 years) of being seen smoking a cigarette (a Turkish cigarette at that), and asked why, he replied "with frivolity and depression that, 'they were the only thing he got out of the Turks'" (p. 733).
6. On socialism versus conservatism: It is the the difference "between the ladder and the queue. We are for the ladder. Let us all do our best to climb. They are for the queue. Let each wait in his place until his turn comes" (p. 841).
The more I reflect on Jenkins' work, the more I appreciate it. His "Glossary of Parliamentary Terms" is gold for any reader, but especially for non-British readers like me.