I was a true believer, an avid fan of Winston Churchill even before I started researching his life and the clash between the British and French Navies in July 1940.

One of the delights of a project like this is reading about people whose initial impressions of Winston Churchill were not nearly as admiring as mine … and then watching their opinions change over time.

Twenty-four-year-old John Colville arrived at 10 Downing Street on Tuesday, October 10, 1939 for his first day as assistant private secretary to Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. Colville later wrote of Chamberlain: “this austere man had such integrity, such devotion to duty and such high ideals and standards, that if it was at first difficult to feel affection for him it was impossible not to feel esteem.”

Winston Churchill, who was First Lord of the Admiralty in Chamberlain’s cabinet at the time, had an established public reputation through his career in government, his speeches, and his writings. Shortly before his first day at 10 Downing Street, Colville recorded a diary entry in which he noted Churchill’s “untrustworthiness and instability.”

Seven months later, when it was apparent that Chamberlain’s government would fall, and Churchill would become the new Prime Minister, Colville wrote: “Everyone here is in despair at the prospect.” Colville also referred to Churchill as “a half-breed American whose main support was that of inefficient but talkative people of a similar type.”

After five months in Churchill’s daily presence as the new P.M. inspired and galvanized Britain against daunting odds, Colville wrote: “What was constant was the respect, admiration and affection that almost all those with whom he was in touch felt for him despite his engaging but sometimes infuriating idiosyncrasies.” As he assisted Churchill with his schedule and correspondence, Colville’s reliability and affability won the P.M.’s confidence and affection in return.

Roy Jenkins published a 912-page biography of Churchill in 2001. Churchill: A Biography was widely acclaimed at the time as the best single-volume chronicle of Churchill’s life.

Jenkins approached Churchill from a different perspective. Jenkins was elected to Parliament at the age of twenty-eight in 1948. Jenkins and Churchill both served in the House of Commons for the next 16 years, but were members of opposing parties, and were not well acquainted.

Jenkins wrote 19 books, including a widely-acclaimed biography of 19th-century Prime Minister William Gladstone. Jenkins considered Gladstone the greatest Prime Minister of the 19th century, and had a natural inclination to write about Churchill, whom he considered the greatest P.M. of the 20th century. Jenkins, however, expressed some initial trepidation about taking on the larger-than-life figure of Churchill. Of his time in Churchill’s sphere, Jenkins wrote: “I was aware of witnessing something unique, but also remote and unpredictable.” In the end, Jenkins’ biography met with widespread praise and commercial success.

In the final paragraph on page 912 of Churchill: A Biography, Jenkins tells about how the process of writing about these two men shaped his life. “When I started writing this book I thought that Gladstone was, by a narrow margin, the greater man, certainly the more remarkable specimen of humanity. In the course of writing it I have changed my mind, I now put Churchill, with all his idiosyncrasies, his indulgences, his occasional childishness, but also his genius, his tenacity and his persistent ability, right or wrong, successful or unsuccessful, to be larger than life, as the greatest human being ever to occupy 10 Downing Street.”

One of the biggest surprises of my project is how the process of writing about great men and significant events has dramatically altered my impressions and opinions. Colville and Jenkins both made reference to Churchill's "idiosyncrasies" ... which contribute some of the most charming and - especially to those who worked most closely with him - some of the most maddening aspects of his personality. The book I’m writing is taking shape in a different way than I had initially imagined. I can’t wait to share the final version with you.

Thanks for reading,