A Daughter's Tale

<p>At ninety years old Mary Soames is the only surviving child of Winston and Clementine Churchill. <i>A Daughter&#146;s Tale</i> follows her early life from an idyllic childhood in her own &#145;Garden of Eden&#146; at Chartwell to her ATS service in mixed anti-aircraft batteries during the war. With glimpses into her fascinating personal diary published here for the first time she draws us into a world where the experiences of a packed family social and romantic life unfold against a background of cataclysmic events.<br><br>When Chamberlain&#146;s declaration of war in 1939 shatters Mary&#146;s world she begins to share the anxieties and stresses suffered by her family through her father&#146;s position. The mutual love between Mary and her parents is evident on every page from her Chartwell years to Winston&#146;s defeat at the 1945 general election when she recounts her own devastation on her father&#146;s behalf. As she meets her future husband Christopher Soames at the end of this charming memoir it is clear that at twenty-four Mary has lived a full life and is well prepared for her future as wife and mother.</p>