Stories of your grandparents' youthful travels may have a certain charm, but are probably not of international interest—unless, of course, you are Celia Sandys and your grandfather is Winston Churchill. In the new three-part television miniseries "Chasing Churchill: In Search of My Grandfather" (airing on PBS beginning July 21st at 10pm) Sandys sets out to recreate her grandfather's globetrotting and explore how the places he visited turned him into a leader and a legend. Newsweek's Amadea Britton spoke with Sandys about what it was like to follow in her grandfather's footsteps and unearth his private thoughts. Excerpts:
Newsweek: What initially inspired you to retrace your grandfather's travels?
Sandys: I had made some journeys with my grandfather in his later years, so I decided it would be absolutely fascinating to see what the other travels had been like. By necessity I'd been traveling with him when he was a very old man and clearly there were other [trips] that were much more exciting.
How long did you spend researching "Chasing Churchill?"
It took a long time in terms of years, simply because I had to catch the stories as I could. I would do it by persuading people to invite me [to lecture]…otherwise sometimes I would do it on family holidays. It was to the extent that eventually after a few years of this my children said, 'Mommy do you think we could possibly have a non-Churchill holiday?'
In the PBS series, you speak to a number of people who tell stories of their grandparents meeting and interacting with Churchill. Were these stories really passed down through the generations or did you contact people and prep them beforehand?
I found that the very best stories were when I met people and they gave me [them] instinctively. It was a question of people being spontaneous instead of people having learned a lesson they were able to repeat to me….Also there were occasions where I had really awkward situations. I'd find myself being shown a photograph album with a picture of what I was told was my grandfather in it…but the photograph was quite clearly not Winston Churchill.
After having followed his route, how do you think his travels shaped him?
He was someone who wanted to be in the thick of everything, he wanted to find things out for himself. His visit to New York made huge impressions and I think sowed the seeds of the special relationship between Britain and America. In Cuba was the first time he was under fire and he had his first experience of battle. I think he began to take life a bit more seriously after Cuba because he realized instead of just being a game it was for real. And then South Africa was a huge influence on him. He came back from South Africa not just the son of a famous man, but an international figure in his own right.
Did you uncover anything that surprised you?
When he was in South Africa he was captured and when he was being taken to the prison he was guarded by one Boer solider—a very young man. My grandfather was obviously doing his best to think of a way he could escape and the chap didn't let him do it, but they sort of struck up a conversation in the end. Before he got off the train my grandfather wrote on this little tiny bit of paper in pencil saying, 'This man has been guarding me and he looked after me very well so if he should be captured by the British please look after him the way he's looked after me." And the family had kept this note.
Anything that might surprise historians?
I think the public in general often thinks that Winston Churchill appeared on the steps of 10 Downing Street on the 10th of May 1940 with a cigar in one hand, making a V-sign with the other and that was that. They don't question where he came from, what he did before. He would never have gotten there if there hadn't been so much to his life before.
Were there any moments when you had to deal with less pleasant memories of Churchill?
There was a controversy about how he escaped in South Africa and it was a big controversy at the time…[over] whether he should have left the other two [British captives] whom he was meant to escape with behind. I went into the whole story. I really went into it. I'm not going to sit here and say, you know, he was right and they were wrong. But the fact of the matter was they tried, they couldn't get over the wall, he went and had one more go, and waited for them for two hours on the other side of the fence. It would have been very difficult to climb back in over the wall.
In the film you make a point of visiting spots where Churchill painted. Why was that important in telling his story?
I mean this was an absolute stress-breaker for him—this was what he did when he wanted to relax. And the painting was really important—it sounds like it's just something you want to do for fun, but I think it played a much more important role. If he'd been stressed out as they say…I don't think stress was allowed to happen in those days. But you know in today's world people would certainly consider that he was under the worst possible stress, particularly during the war and throughout the thirties when he was telling everyone what was happening in Germany and telling everyone the news that they absolutely didn't want to hear. That was the time he painted his very best pictures.
Where are these paintings now?
The largest collection is at my grandparents' country house in Chartwell in Kent, which belongs to the National Trust. But there are paintings which he gave to other people: he gave paintings to each of the American presidents that he knew. The only painting he painted during World War II was in Marrakech, which he gave to President Roosevelt after he'd taken him there to see the sun setting on the Atlas mountains. And he gave one to President Truman, one to President Eisenhower…so he liked giving his paintings away, but to very special people.
Many people came forward to help you with this project and it is now being aired on national television. Why do you think that there is such enduring interest in Churchill?
I think that from the moment he died in 1965 for the next sort of 30 years he gradually took his place in the history books. But after 9/11 it seemed that he stepped right off those pages and back into the political arena, because leaders were all quoting him—from Downing Street to the White House, from the London Times to the New York Times. Everywhere people were quoting Winston Churchill. I think what all this proves is that his style and principles of leadership are as relevant today as they were in 1940.