Literary Lunch with Adrian Phillips
Tuesday, 28 January 2025
Location: Christopher Wren Dining Room, Ye Olde Watling Pub, 29 Watling Road, London EC4M 9BR
Join us for our next Literary Lunch at the historic Ye Olde Watling pub where we will hear from Freeman Adrian Phillips who will be discussing his book 'Winston's Bandits: Churchill and His Maverick Friends'.
Though today he is hailed as one of Britain's greatest leaders, throughout his career, Winston Churchill was an outsider, accumulating a reputation for bad judgement and untrustworthiness. Only risk-takers and fellow outsiders would back him - but these strong and often feuding personalities proved to be vital to his decision-making in war and peace alike.
Winston's Bandits provides, for the first time, a detailed account of his greatest friendships. These friends were Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook, a press baron who craved power but only on his own terms; Frederick Lindemann, later Lord Cherwell, an ascetic and quarrelsome scientist who believed in Churchill's intellectual genius; Brendan Bracken, an Irishman from a humble background who reinvented himself as a major force in financial publishing and gave Churchill unconditional support; the young Bob Boothby who would earn notoriety by conducting a scandalous, adulterous affair with Harold Macmillan’s wife and dubious financial dealings; Randolph Churchill, who was often a disappointment and burden to his father; and Duncan Sandys, who reaped the full benefits of being Churchill's son-in-law in his political career.
Together, they were Winston's bandits. This remarkable book explores how Churchill's relationships with these forceful and intriguing sparring partners provide the key to understanding his greatest triumphs and disasters.
Georgina Brown is Manager of The Wilbur&Niso Smith Foundation. Before moving to London, Georgina worked in Dorset, Russia and the United States. Georgina is a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellow. She holds an Undergraduate degree in Writing, Directing and Performance from The University of York, and a Post Graduate Certificate in Arts Fundraising and Philanthropy from The University of Leeds. She is a graduate of The Berkshire Hills Internship Program, an intensive arts management program at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. Prior to life at the Foundation, Georgina has worked in the fundraising ranks of a symphony orchestra and may be the only person to have ever run away from the circus.
The cost of this lunchtime event, which starts at 1.00pm, is just £35 and includes a traditional two-course lunch, as well as the after-lunch interview with Adrian Phillips and Georgina Brown. We are restricted to 35 attendees, so please book early to avoid disappointment.
Books will also be available to preorder and get signed on the day!
