Troublesome Young Men: The Rebels Who Brought Churchill to Power and Helped Save England

Those four troublesome young men had attended Eton and Harrow, Cambridge and Oxford. They lived in Belgravia and Mayfair and owned sprawling country houses. They were part of the small, clubby network that dominated English society. And now they were doing the unthinkable: trying to topple Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, the leader of their own party. The Chamberlain government seemed to want a minimal war that would cost as little as possible. In Britain there was doubt, cynicism, apathy and distrust. But on 13 May all that would change and Churchill, swept centre stage, would give his celebrated speech: 'You ask what is our aim? I can answer in one word: victory.' In the past six decades, the emergence of Winston Churchill as the saviour of Britain has come to be viewed as an almost preordained event. But, as a Cabinet member, Churchill had been a staunch supporter of Chamberlain, and his imminent leadership seemed far from inevitable. Amery, Boothby, Cartland and Macmillan (later to be prime minister himself) were seen as being disloyal in a time of war, violating the norms of their clannish, upper-class society, and for that they were vilified as traitors to their class, party, government and country. But without them, Churchill might never have come to power. Troublesome Young Men is their story.