Winston Churchill and Somerset Maugham were born in the same year, 1874, and both died in 1965. Each had one foot in the Victorian age and the other in the era of automobiles, flight, motion pictures, and the Cold War. Despite their travels and cosmopolitan backgrounds, both remained distinctly English in their demeanor and speech.
Churchill’s parents, Jennie and Randolph, rarely showed their son affection, though later Jennie did prove instrumental in furthering Winston’s career. Maugham’s parents died before he turned 11, and the uncle and aunt with whom he then lived, though they offered him care, lacked the loving nature of his parents.
