Dinner With Churchill: Policy-Making at the Dinner Table (33 page)

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CKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Like all students of Churchill, I am deeply indebted to the scholarship of Sir Martin Gilbert. Sir Martin’s plate was already overflowing, so I am doubly grateful to him for the patience with which he offered suggestions to a fledgling author of whom many academics as distinguished as Sir Martin, if such there be, would have taken little notice.

Lady Williams, née Jane Portal, who worked with Churchill from 1949 to 1955, has shared some of her memories of the Prime Minister. Her friendship has become one of my most treasured results of writing this book. Andrew Roberts endorsed the idea for this book from the beginning and has been a staunch friend throughout the research and writing, providing encouragement that only a star historian can provide a neophyte writer. And he introduced me to my agent, Georgina Capel.

Without the encouragement and on-going guidance of Gertrude Himmelfarb and Stuart Proffitt I would not have undertaken this project. Without the help of many people I would not have been able to complete it. Alan
Packwood and the staff at the Churchill Archives, to whom Churchill scholars across the world owe so much, were obliging in the extreme. Phil Reed, Director of the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms during most of the writing of this book, made many useful suggestions and provided wonderfully wide-ranging conversations. Hugh Lunghi, one of Churchill’s
Russian-language
interpreters during the war, shared many of his recollections with me in his most charming manner.

Graham Stewart contributed important suggestions for improving the text. Roger Moorhouse, an historian in his own right, was a most creative seeker of images, and helped with much-needed moral support and humour. Ray Wells of
The Sunday Times
paved the way for original photography while Francesco Guidicini shot the cigar photos at the Fox Churchill Museum, which kindly granted access to its hoard of Churchill memorabilia. Leon Aron, a Russian Scholar, was encouraging and most helpful with his Russian contacts and his translation of the Russian menus.

Andrew Porter of the
Telegraph
provided an important document at a key moment. David Bell was generous with his introductions in Bermuda. Neil Crompton, then in the British Embassy in Washington, put me in touch with Sir Geoffrey Adams. Sir Geoffrey, then the British Ambassador in Teheran, arranged access to the Embassy’s treasure trove of photographs of the Teheran Conference and Lady Adams was kind enough to photograph for me the British Embassy dining room as it is today.

Sue Sutton’s research skills uncovered many treasures in the Churchill Archives. Leyre Gonzalez deployed her considerable organisational skills to keep the daily flow
of information in accessible order, and Rebecca Driscoll helped to solve the inevitable headaches that computers willfully choose to create. Shan Vahidy calmly stepped in at a critical moment to foil a computer attack on the endnotes. The Hudson Institute provided important support.

They have all done their best but I am of course responsible for any remaining errors.