LONG SUNSET Memoirs of Winston Churchill's Last Private Secretary

Here’s one for the connoisseur, both of the recorded voice and of eyewitness history. The source is unique: the memoirs of Winston Churchill’s private secretary during his postwar years of decline (1945-1964), here read by the author’s nephew. The perspective is a conservative loyalty to the ideals of Empire, and a polished disdain for the forces that were sweeping all that away. The text is packed with jolly anecdotes and many stray nuggets of historical interest. The pace is deliberate, of the vintage of its time; the voice is cultivated, articulate—though at times John Mulligan reads rather than renders the text. All this has its charms, and is of a character that is soothing and beguiling and surprisingly evocative. If you can laugh at Churchill calling an American secretary of state “Dull, Duller, Dulles,” then this is one for you. D.W. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine [Published: AUGUST 2012]