It was in the early summer of 1906 that Violet Bonham Carter first met Winston Churchill: an encounter which left an "indelible im pression" upon her. "I found myself," she recalled, sitting next to this young man who seemed to me quite different from any other young man I had ever met. For a long time he remained sunk in abstraction. Then he appeared to become aware of my existence. He tumed on me a lowering gaze and asked me abruptly how old I was. I replied that I was nineteen. HAnd I," he said almost despairingly, "am thirty-two already. Younger than anyone else who counts, though," he...

It was in the early summer of 1906 that Violet Bonham Carter first met Winston Churchill: an encounter which left an "indelible im pression" upon her. "I found myself," she recalled, sitting next to this young man who seemed to me quite different from any other young man I had ever met. For a long time he remained sunk in abstraction. Then he appeared to become aware of my existence. He turned on me a lowering gaze and asked me abruptly how old I was. I replied that I was nineteen. "And I," he said almost despairingly, "am thirty-two already. Younger than anyone else who counts, though," he...