Chasing Churchill: Travels with Winston Churchill

‘Original and hugely entertaining…one of the most evocative and engaging books on Churchill I’ve ever read’ Andrew Roberts, Mail on Sunday

‘Sandys’ revealing insights into Churchill’s character would be reward enough for this absorbing work; her engaging style and lightness of touch make it a double delight’ Yorkshire Evening Post

Praise for Churchill Wanted Dead or Alive:
‘A groundbreaking book… excitingly told’ Giles Foden, Guardian; ‘Celia Sandys has researched her grandfather’s time in South Africa more thoroughly than anyone else… a fascinating story, told with a rare combination of insight, thoroughness and charm’ Alan Judd, Sunday Telegraph; ‘a compelling adventure story… well-written, fast-moving narrative’ Andrew Roberts, Literary Review

With all his other remarkable achievements, it is easy to overlook the fact that throughout his long life Winston Churchill was an indefatigable foreign traveller, for purposes of work on recreation, in times of both war and peace.

As a young man, his thirst for fame and adventure took him to Cuba, the North-West Frontier, the Sudan and South Africa. He experienced battle at close quarters, was taken prisoner, and made a daring escape which bought him worldwide fame at the age of twenty-five. As Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies and then as First Lord of the Admiralty he became perhaps the best-travelled British politician of his time, his unquenchable energy exhausting a succession of aides.

Even during the Second World War, when he held his nation’s destiny in his hands, there was little diminution in Churchill’s foreign travel, as he made uncomfortable and hazardous journeys for face-to-face meetings with allies such as Roosevelt and Stalin, or to witness at first hand the progress of the conflict.

Perhaps above all there was his lifelong love affair with the United States, the country of his mother’s birth, to which he made repeated visits. In later years his growing passion for painting provided the impetus for travels to the South of France, Italy, Morocco and Madeira.

His granddaughter Celia Sandys accompanied him on some of these late journeys, including a memorable cruise on Aristotle Onassis’s yacht, and his very last foreign trip. Now, following the success of her previous book, ‘Churchill Wanted Dead or Alive’, she traces her grandfather’s footsteps across four continents. Wherever she goes, she finds people who knew, entertained or simply crossed paths with him. Many of them, she discovers, have stories which have never been told before, and which illuminate Churchill’s character in unexpected and often surprising ways.

‘Chasing Churchill’ is a fascinating and entertaining insight into an important, but often neglected aspect of Winston Churchill’s life, and an engaging record of a unique quest.

Praise for Celia Sandys’ ‘Churchill Wanted Dead or Alive’

‘Celia Sandys has researched her grandfather’s time in South Africa more thoroughly than anyone else. The story of Churchill’s capture by the Boers is thrilling and heroic. This is a fascinating story, told with a rare combination of insight, thoroughness and charm’
Alan Judd, ‘Sunday Telegraph’

‘This excellent book shows how all-consuming was Churchill’s lust for fame, glory and medals…A well researched and compelling adventure story, this well-written, fast-moving narrative is a fine portrait of a young man in a hurry, albeit one who cut corners to reach his glorious destination’
Andrew Roberts, ‘Literary Review’

‘A groundbreaking book – surprisingly the first to really get to grips with this period of Churchill’s life apart from his own…excitingly told’
Giles Fodden, ‘Guardian’

‘A cracking good yarn…an absorbing, down-to-earth read’
Elizabeth Clarke, ‘Independent on Sunday’

‘Throughout she displays a Churchillian way with prose: clear, concise and highly readable’
Stephen Pritchard, ‘Observer’