Dinner with Churchill Policy-Making at the Dinner Table
A friend once said of Churchill: “He is a man of simple tastes; he is quite easily satisfied with the best of
everything.”
Dinners for Churchill were about more than good food, excellent champagnes and Havana cigars. “Everything” included the opportunity to use the dinner table both as a stage on which to display his brilliant conversational talents, and an intimate setting in which to glean gossip and diplomatic insights and to argue for the many policies he espoused over a long life.
In this riveting, informative and entertaining book, Stelzer draws on previously untapped material, diaries of guests, and a wide variety of other sources to tell of some of the key dinners at which Churchill presided before, during and after World War II.
A freelance journalist and a Research Associate at the Hudson Institution, Cita Stelzer previously worked for John Lindsay, Mayor of New York, and Governor Hugh Carey. She is currently a Reader at Churchill College, Cambridge, and a member of the Board of the Churchill Centre and Trustee of Wigmore Hall.
“A delightful and fascinating book in which we are reminded that an evening dining with Churchill must have been one of the most memorable and enjoyable occasions one could have hoped for.”
Andrew Roberts, author of The Storm of War
“A delightful and delicious tribute to Churchill’s heroic appetite for wining, dining and politicking.”
Ben Macintyre, author of Operation Mincemeat
“Acutely revealing.”
Times Literary Supplement
“What a wonderful repast Cita Stelzer has served us. History as it was consumed: Roosevelt sipping, Churchill quaffing—the best (and not so good) cuts and the great vintages are all on the table. Another bottle, please!”
William Shawcross, author of Justice and the Enemy
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