The English Wife
Stuart’s solid biographical fiction of Clementine Churchill spotlights two women in a world of conflict and rising fascism. Clemmie’s life from 1938 through the end of WWII is juxtaposed against the fictional Jenny Miller, wife of Ned Miller, a CBS broadcaster stationed in Britain for the duration. Their lives are based on Americans Janet and Ed Murrow. During the novel Clemmie has reason to spend some time with Jenny, working for the war effort, while they use each other as occasional sounding boards. This reveals much about Clemmie’s background through dialogue rather than straight prose. Clemmie, known to be a private person, is dedicated to her duty to support Winston in everything, and to keep him healthy for her family, for the nation and for the world. In the couple’s personal exchanges, readers can hear their voices as they spring to life on the page. Clemmie, with her high status, is able to cut through red tape and her social accomplishments during the war years are legion – improving underground shelters, the Fulmer Chase and Fircroft maternity homes for soldiers’ wives, YWCA Hostels and Aid to Russia. Meanwhile Jenny engages in BBC broadcasts and organises Bundles for Britain.
Stuart writes with simple clarity about this rather elusive bastion of freedom and social reform, notwithstanding the many thousands of pages written about her famous husband. All the characters play balanced roles, including the war itself. It is pure joy to read of a woman with such poise and etiquette, a principled woman who never made herself the star of her own show. This kind of strong, genteel humility seems so often absent today. Highly educative, timely and soundly crafted.
