Lloyd George and Churchill

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

They met in 1901, the day of Churchill's maiden speech in the House of Commons, and remained fast friends until Lloyd George's death in 1945. As prime minister, each in turn led the British nation to victory in a world war, David Lloyd George in 1916-1918, Winston Churchill in 1940-1945. They were sneeringly referred to as the Heavenly Twins by political colleagues who hated them and envied their power and charisma. Rintals, who teaches European politics at Boston College, probes the dynamics of their political and personal partnership and relates how they supported each other in times of stress. In a masterful exposition, he compares their formative years, the development of their oratorical and writing skills, their sex lives (Lloyd George, according to the author, was a lecher; Churchill's sexual requirements were modest) and the character of their mental depressions. (Mar.)

Booknews

Few people know of the close friendship between two powerful British politicians: David Lloyd George, leader of the British Liberal Party and Prime Minister during WWI, and Winston Churchill, who deserted the Liberal Party for the Conservatives before becoming Prime Minister himself. Rintala shows how their long association survived political differences and played a vital role in the creation of British policy during the first half of the 20th century. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Margaret Flanagan

Rintala examines the personal nature and the historical impact of the deep and abiding friendship that existed between political rivals David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill. Though Lloyd George, distinguished leader of the British Liberal Party and prime minister during World War I, and Churchill, a staunch Conservative and prime minister during World War II, often disagreed on matters of philosophy and policy, they remained devoted friends and often influenced each other's views and positions. Rintala argues that "the personal relationship of Lloyd George and Churchill may have had more significant political consequences than any other personal relationship in the British experience." Bolstering this seemingly inflated claim, he cites as evidence the fact that both Lloyd George and Churchill were instrumental in abolishing the power of the House of Lords in 1911; worked in concert in order to guarantee immediate British participation in the rapidly widening European conflict in 1914; and Lloyd George successfully championed Churchill's succession to the prime ministership in 1940. Though Rintala tends to get a bit carried away with his specific theory, he does offer some relevant insight into a complex social and historical subject. Recommended for larger political science and British history collections.