CHURCHILL & SMUTS — The FriendshipRichard SteynRichard Steyn Jonathan Ball Publishers To the reading public, the appearance of the name "Churchill" in yet another new title may elicit a passing yawn. In his acknowledgements, author Richard Steyn notes that Winston Churchill has been the subject of more than 1,500 biographies. He is clear that he had no intention of rehashing what has already been accomplished by acclaimed historians such as Martin Gilbert, William Manchester’s trilogy, Roy Jenkins’s biography, master historian Max Hastings’s books on the First World War and many more. UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson’s recent biography on Churchill doesn’t once mention Jan Smuts. This long-forgotten South African legend’s name was deeply intertwined with that of Churchill, who bestrode the first half of the 20th century like a colossus. And yet, Steyn reveals in his prologue that prominently displayed on Churchill’s old writing desk at his country estate, Chartwell, in Kent is a p...
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