Celia Sandys – författare

Sir Winston Churchill was a well-traveled man. By the time he was twenty-five, his thirst for adventure had taken him to Cuba, India's North-West frontier, the Sudan, and South Africa, as well as to battle, prison, and worldwide fame. During World War II, when as prime minister he held Britain's destiny in his hands, he hazarded arduous journeys not only to confer face-to-face with his allies Roosevelt and Stalin, but also to witness firsthand the action at the front. In later years, his enduring passion for painting prompted travels to locales like Marrakech. (He took President Roosevelt there in 1943, simply to view a splendid sunset.) Celia Sandys actually accompanied her famous grandfather on some of his later travels, most memorably on a cruise aboard Aristotle Onassis's yacht Christina, but for this always-engaging book she herself has retraced his many journeys over seventy years on four continents, and sought the people who knew, entertained, consulted, or simply crossed paths with him. In their long-untold stories she finds her grandfather's character illuminated in new, revealing, and often surprising ways.

Celia Sandys goes ‘in grandfather’s footsteps’ to retrace young Winston Churchill’s adventures during nine months of the Anglo-Boer War in South Africa – where Churchill served as war correspondent, combatant (at Spion Kop and Ladysmith), prisoner-of-war and escapee. Celia Sandys has uncovered a hitherto neglected part of Churchill’s life using many previously untapped sources and giving many hitherto unknown facts and anecdotes. In 1899, within two weeks of his arrival in South Africa to cover the Boer War as a journalist for London’s Morning Post, the twenty-four-year-old Churchill was taken prisoner when his train was ambushed by a Boer patrol. Churchill first enabled most of his companions to escape to safety before he himself was captured and taken to Pretoria, his daring escape prompting a massive manhunt. Evading recapture by taking refuge in a coalmine, then hiding in a goods wagon, his exploits propelled him overnight on to the international stage. One hundred years after these events Celia Sandys followed in her grandfather’s footsteps, visiting campsites, battlefields, the site of his incarceration in Pretoria, and the route of his escape, uncovering a host of fascinating details about this tumultuous period in his early life. Churchill Wanted Dead or Alive is both a thrilling adventure story and a unique insight into the life of a young man who went on to become one of his country’s greatest leaders.

A delightful and illuminating journey through the early years of Winston Churchill, From Winston with Love and Kisses: The Young Churchill weaves together strands of Churchill’s early writing, mature recollections and reflections on childhood, and the comments of the author, Churchill’s granddaughter. Together with a rich store of images and ephemera from the family archives, this book provides an enthralling composite view of the lonely and sickly little boy who survived on sheer tenacity to become one of the greatest leaders of the twentieth century. Lavishly illustrated throughout and reproducing in facsimile many of the young Winston’s letters and early artistic efforts, this captivating book brings us an intimate portrait of Churchill’s youth.

‘Churchill’s Little Redhead’ is the autobiography of much-travelled author and television presenter, Celia Sandys, Winston Churchill’s granddaughter. In 1959 she accompanied her grandparents on the ‘Christina’, Aristotle Onassis’s superyacht, for a grand tour of the Mediterranean with another guest, the legendary diva, Maria Callas. During the extraordinary journey, sixteen-year-old Celia witnessed the burgeoning romance between Onassis and Callas, a love affair which resulted in two divorces within a year. Celia was born in war-ravaged London in 1943, the daughter of Duncan Sandys, her grandfather’s Minister of Supply in his war cabinet, and Diana Churchill. Celia recalls in much detail post-war rationing and the make-do atmosphere that prevailed at the time. In her spirited book she describes the ups and downs of her three marriages, from which she bore three sons and a daughter. The sad death of her divorced mother is touched upon with tenderness, and the death of her favourite aunt, Sarah, who had spent several years deteriorating into alcoholism following the sudden death of her beloved husband is narrated with much understanding and obvious love. Once her children had flown the nest, Celia developed a new career as an author and wrote three books on her grandfather. One of which, ‘Chasing Churchill’, led her to present it as a television series, in which she travelled the world re-tracing her grandfather’s footsteps: from his military escapades in Cuba, the Boer War, his vital wartime meetings with President Roosevelt and countless other visits to his ‘other country’ the United States. A thoroughly modern and independent woman of spirit, Celia’s eventful life makes for a fascinating read.