Passionate Mothers, Powerful Sons

'Gray has managed to do the virtually impossible, and that is to say something new and perceptive about Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt' Margaret MacMillan, author of Paris 1919

'A fascinating two-way mirror onto a world of privilege' Country Life

Jennie Jerome and Sara Delano: two remarkable, often overlooked individuals who were key in shaping the characters of their sons, Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt, and preparing them for the world stage.

Born into upper-class America in 1854, both refused to settle into predictable lives as little-known wives to prominent men. They learned how to take control of their destinies – Jennie in the glittering world of imperial London and Sara in the prosperous Hudson Valley.

The vivacious Jennie married Lord Randolph Churchill, scion of a noble British family. Her deft social manoeuvrings helped not only her mercurial husband but also her ambitious son, Winston. By contrast, deeply conventional Sara Delano married a man as old as her father. After her husband's death, she made Franklin, her only child, the focus of her existence. It was her guidance and financial support that helped him become a successful politician.