Winston's Bandits

'Winston Churchill had a rare capacity for friendship and Adrian Phillips has unerringly homed in on the close friends who helped him achieve victory in the Second World War. In this well-researched, closely argued and occasionally revisionist book, Phillips goes beyond most conventional accounts by also forensically focusing on the relationships between the friends, too, and especially their feuds. This work is an important addition to the Churchillian canon.' Andrew Roberts, author of Churchill: Walking with Destiny

Throughout his career Churchill was an outsider, accumulating a reputation for bad judgement and untrustworthiness. Only risk-takers and fellow outsiders would back him and he needed the company of like-minded individuals to create a social environment in which his personality could flourish. They were the acute and vigorous sparring-partners with whom he could hold the lively discussions which were life itself to him, in the convivial and epicurean surroundings he craved.

They were Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook, who invested a fortune amassed in obscure financial dealings in a press empire which served his quest for power; Brendan Bracken was the model for the shady parvenu politician Rex Mottram in Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, but the true story of the Irishman who came from nowhere is even more extraordinary; the young Bob Boothby who would earn notoriety by conducting a scandalous, adulterous affair with Harold Macmillan's wife and dubious financial dealings; Frederick Lindemann later Lord Cherwell eminent scientist and ascetic, vegetarian and near-teetotal, who adored the cut and thrust of competitive conversation which was more important to the group than high-living. Together they were Winston's bandits, and this remarkable book tells the story of their friendship and of the part they played both in Churchill's triumphs and disasters.

• "Winston Churchill had a rarecapacity for friendship, and Adrian Phillips has unerringly homed in on theclose friends who helped him achieve victory in the Second World War. In thiswell-researched, closely argued and occasionally revisionist book, Phillipsgoes beyond most conventional accounts by forensically focusing on therelationships between the friends, too, and especially their feuds. This workis an important addition to the Churchillian canon." Andrew Roberts, author of Churchill:Walking with Destiny
• "Thisis a valuable book, well written and a pleasure to read. It sheds light onaspects of Winston Churchill's career that are overlooked by those who see himsimply as the man who delivered victory in 1945." Walter Reid, author of FightingRetreat: Churchill and India
• "Awell-researched and lively foray into the curious cast of colourful charactersspanning Churchill's remarkable career. Phillips's enjoyable account offriendship, feuds and Whitehall machinations helps us see Churchill in a newlight." ProfessorRory Cormac, University of Nottingham
• "Afascinating insight into an unfamiliar facet of Churchill's character. AdrianPhillips has written an important book." AdrianTinniswood, author of Noble Ambitions
• "AdrianPhillips's new book examines Churchill through his circle of friends - some ofthem members of the so-called Order of the Bath, who enjoyed the doubtfulprivilege of conferring with their master in his tub. For the grandson of aduke, Winston's coterie was anything but predictable: none of its members wasdrawn from school or army friends but rather formed of a motley crew, some ofwhom were rewarded with high office during the Second World War. It includedthe Canadian newspaper tycoon Lord Beaverbrook, the Irish fantasist BrendanBracken, the half-German boffin Frederick Lindemann, Churchill's son-in-lawDuncan Sandys and, for a while at least, his hapless son Randolph. Phillipsbrings this world to life with considerable panache." GilesMacDonogh, author of After the Reich
• "Afast-paced, masterfully written tale of fascinating political intrigue andcunning activity woven by Churchill's 'bathroom group' of confidants, whohelped shape the course and outcome of the Second World War. In particular, thebehind-the-scenes roles of businessman Brendan Bracken and scientist FrederickLindemann are highlighted, along with other leading characters such as pressbaron Lord Beaverbrook, politician Duncan Sandys and Churchill's son Randolph." MungoMelvin, author of Manstein: Hitler's Greatest General
• "Amagnificent new account of Churchill told through the lens of his closestfriends." HelenFry, author of Women in Intelligence
• "AdrianPhillips provides fascinating new material about Churchill's strange bunch ofoutside advisers and how they took on Britain's inner establishment." DavidLough, author of No More Champagne: Churchill and His Money
• "AdrianPhillips offers a riveting analysis of an area of Churchill's life that, untilnow, has not received enough scholarly attention: the great friendships,personal and political, that sustained him through the towering highs andinfamous lows of the 1930s and '40s." EdOwens, author of After Elizabeth: Can the Monarchy Save Itself?
• "InWinston's Bandits, Adrian Phillips achieves no small feat, drawing ourattention to a blank page in the otherwise well-thumbed tome that is the lifeof Sir Winston Churchill: his friendships. Churchill gathered his courtiersbased on a complex interplay of privilege, political ambition and professionalrespect - but, above all, character. Weaker leaders have leaned on sycophants;Churchill was enhanced by surrounding himself with those confident in speakingtruth to power. This would have national, if not international, implicationsonce Churchill entered No. 10 in May 1940 and positioned his 'bandits' at theheart of power during Britain's darkest hour. Ruthless towards those who fellfrom favour and magnanimous towards former enemies, Churchill remains the mosthuman of our great historical figures. Phillips expertly navigates the bonds ofloyalty as well as the infighting and ambitions that shaped the court ofChurchill." JennyGrant, historian of Polish-British relations in the Second World War
• "Anabsorbing and illuminating account of the loyal and unpredictable mavericks ofWinston Churchill's inner circle. Drawing on new material, Adrian Phillipssheds much-needed light on an important aspect of Churchill's story:friendship." ClaireHubbard-Hall, author of The Real Miss Moneypenny: The ForgottenWomen of British Intelligence

Adrian Phillips is the author of Fighting Churchill, Appeasing Hitler: How a British Civil Servant Helped Cause the Second World War and The King Who Had To Go: Edward VIII, Mrs Simpson and the Hidden Politics of the Abdication Crisis, both published by Biteback.

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