VICTORY IN THE KITCHEN: The Life of Churchill's Cook

Georgina Landemare was not royal, rich or famous, just someone who worked hard, enjoyed her work and was particularly good at it. How fortuitous that her skills were as a cook and her employer one of the most eager eaters and important figures of the 20th century! She was born Georgina Young in 1882 in a small Hertfordshire village and took her first job in 1896 as a nursemaid to the children of a MP, then two years later to work with the rest of her family as staff of the wealthy Bower family in Kensington, where she began to learn the art of cooking. She quickly established a reputation among minor London aristocracy, then in 1933, with some 40 years of experience of the mores of upper-class kitchens, she was approached by Winston and Clementine Churchill for the position of cook. Food was central to the Churchill's lives, not only as a pleasure but also a diplomatic tool. The book is about working-class life, women's work and expectations and domestic service at all levels and also about British food and produce and the growing influence of overseas cuisine, particularly French, the impact of war on the nation's food, but ultimately it is the story of a woman who lived, worked, married and raised a family through the most tumultuous years of the 20th century. 8 pages of b/w plates and some handwritten diary/recipe entries on the endpapers, 390pp.