Churchill on the Homefront

You might say that Churchill’s Citadel, by Katherine Carter, is a book about Chartwell, a house in the lovely Kentish Weald, just 24 miles southeast of the Houses of Parliament in Westminster. You might also say that it is a book about Winston Churchill himself, who fell in love with the ramshackle Henry VIII-period pile and its hilltop setting in 1921; bought it the next year for £5,000; and then spent four times that sum in the next two years to make it habitable for Clementine, his wife, who had loved the house at first sight, too, but fallen right out of love with it when she (more practical than her heartstrong husband) became aware of its numerous dilapidations.

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