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How Lord Alfred Douglas was convicted and sent to jail, but was mollified by later events; how he praised his former enemy, and was forgiven.

How Winston Churchill was invited to opine, and Lord Alfred Douglas was affronted by what he saw as an obvious conspiracy with Jewish financiers.

Churchill rarely painted scene with someone else, and only once with a field marshal. Their Lake Como oils offer a glimpse of friendship and technique.

Among his generals, Churchill thought Alexander “the best we had.” Alex for his part was ever faithful, saying, “I can’t simply refuse Winston.”

Churchill and Caesar both wrote literate war memoirs. Was this special pleading, or was there a higher purpose? For Churchill, there certainly was.

A chapel in Java built by Allied POWs included national symbols, in which Winston Churchill was surreptitiously added under the noses of Japanese guards.

“In my mind’s eye I invest him with the robes of Caesar…. The lives of the great are an inspiration to their posterity.” —Lewis Broad

Through education, Churchill strove to elevate the individual. Through labor exchanges, he strove to promote natural market functions. Through unemployment insurance, he paired the virtue of thrift with an encouragement of personal responsibility to strengthen the individual and curb the effects of uncontrollable misfortune. Churchill recognized an end; he saw a means and pursued it.

The Churchills, father and son, had close friendships with prominent, talented Jews. One was Nathaniel Mayer “Natty” Rothschild, First Baron Rothschild, head of the British branch of the famous banking family. He was the first Jewish member of the House of Lords. Another was Sir Ernest Joseph Cassel, also of Jewish origin, though he became a Catholic in 1880. A renowned merchant banker and financier, Sir Ernest was young Winston’s mentor, financial consultant and lifelong friend.

Before Covid-19 leaves our native shores, is there anything that might be learned from Churchillian leadership about our best response to it?

Historical close calls, during the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918-21, remind us of the role of illness and chance in the fate of nations and their leaders.

The series—a collection of twenty-eight original pieces—attempts to depict the many facets of Churchill’s complex character. The series covers Churchill’s early childhood all the way through his second term as prime minister in the 1950s. Diving into both the public and private side of Churchill’s life, the series balances Churchill’s professional years as a soldier and war correspondent, a writer, a rhetorician, and a statesman with his private interests as a painter, aviation enthusiast, horseman, father, and husband. Hooper offers a complete, yet often overlooked, picture of the national and international icon.