"He was the unpromising scion of one of England's preeminent families, growing up in the shadow of his powerful father and his beautiful and brilliant American-born mother. He suffered from ill health, stammered in his speech, rebelled against authority, and encountered setback after setback in school; he seemed destined to be a disgrace to his name with a future of failure. Yet from these troubled, tempestuous years of youth emerged the man whose incredible career as a political leader and Nobel Prize-winning author spanned over a half-century, and whose strength, wisdom, and eloquence helped guide Great Britain through her darkest hours." "He was, of course, Winston Churchill, and in this extraordinarily revealing gem of biography, his granddaughter, Celia Sandys, has drawn upon his own letters home and the recollections of those who knew him to re-create the childhood and coming of age of one of the most significant figures of the twentieth century. Reproduced here in fascinating facsimiles, the letters begin with the six-year-old Winston writing to his glamorous mother. His love and longing for her shine poignantly through his careful, dutiful handwriting. Thus the tone is set for letters to his distant mother and disapproving father that span the years of growing up - years that saw him sent away to boarding school at eight, brought him to the brink of death through both illness and impetuous misadventure, and repeatedly forced him to apologize for failure and resolve to redeem himself." "In a sensitive and searching text, Celia Sandys sets the letters in historical context and provides the biographical details to round out the picture of the young Churchill."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved