Churchill's Secret

Nineteen-fifty-three is synonymous in the British memory with the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II on 2 June. But less well known is what happened in 10 Downing Street on 23 June. With Anthony Eden vying for power, the elderly Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, must maintain the confidence of his government, the press and the public. But after a diplomatic dinner in which he is on typically sparkling form, Churchill's Italian dining companions are rushed out of the building and his doctor called. The Prime Minister has had a stroke.

Churchill is bedbound throughout the summer, and while secrecy agreements have been struck with leading newspaper barons, the potential impact of his health on public life is never far from the minds of his inner circle. With the help of a devoted young nurse and his indomitable wife, Clementine, Churchill gradually recoups his health. But will he be fit enough to represent Britain on the world stage?

“Delightful, funny, heart-warming”

Praise for Jonathan Smith: Jonathan Smith's style is in keeping with the breezy naturalism with which Munnings and Laura Knight painted - Times Literary Supplement

An excellent and subtle novelist

Subtle, accomplished and absorbing . . . a real and serious talent

Jonathan Smith was educated in Wales and at St John's College, Cambridge. KBO: The Churchill Secret, his seventh novel, is being adapted into a major ITV drama. An earlier novel, Summer in February, was made into a feature film, starring Dan Stevens and Dominic Cooper.

10 Downing Street, June 1953: seventy-eight year old Sir Winston Churchill still holds the most powerful position in the land. On the brink of a summit in Bermuda to barter a peace with Russia, the great man is felled by a devastating stroke. And yet it would take many years for the world to know precisely how close Britain had come to catastrophe. With his foreign secretary Anthony Eden in Boston for emergency surgery, the situation becomes critical: there is no one at Britain's helm. As Churchill lies fighting for his life, the people must believe all is well. In the months that follow, his devoted wife Clemmie and a handful of loyal companions rally to the Prime Minister's support in his clandestine sickroom. None of them knows if he will survive, but they keep the faith as once more their inspiring leader goes into battle. At once gripping and uplifting, Jonathan Smith's brilliantly imaginative recreation of an astonishing sequence of events sheds new light on the wit, bravery and determination of an incorrigible man who lived by his own legendary motto: KBO - Keep Buggering On.

Nineteen-fifty-three is synonymous in the British memory with the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II on 2 June. But less well known is what happened in 10 Downing Street on 23 June. With Anthony Eden vying for power, the elderly Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, must maintain the confidence of his government, the press and the public. But after a diplomatic dinner in which he is on typically sparkling form, Churchill's Italian dining companions are rushed out of the building and his doctor called. The Prime Minister has had a stroke.Churchill is bedbound throughout the summer, and while secrecy agreements have been struck with leading newspaper barons, the potential impact of his health on public life is never far from the minds of his inner circle. With the help of a devoted young nurse and his indomitable wife, Clementine, Churchill gradually recoups his health. But will he be fit enough to represent Britain on the world stage?

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