I’ve just been round Chartwell again. It’s as wonderful as ever – the terraces, the gardens, the ground falling steeply away from the house, drawing your eye to the Weald of Kent. The only disappointment: you aren’t allowed into Winston Churchill’s bedroom.
It was in that room that the 78-year-old prime minister was fighting for his life in the summer of 1953: the summer of the coronation, of the conquest of Everest and the winning back of the Ashes. Up in that room, he lay incapacitated by the severe stroke he had suffered after making a speech in No 10. Day and night, he was tended there by his doctor Lord Moran and by a nurse brought in under the strictest security.
Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month
Content from our partners
