Stephanie Barron’s new novel, That Churchill Woman blends historical scandal with a manners novel.  Throughout the book, Jennie Jerome shows incredible loyalty to her husband, Randolph Churchill, helping him with his Parliament career and hiding his secrets, while she privately indulges in many flirtations and a serious affair.

There was a special open-secret aspect to the upper-class affairs in this novel. As long as no one said anything too dramatic or raised any children who were obviously not their father’s, it seemed like the whole crowd turned a blind eye to extramarital affairs. This was an interesting class note in itself, since emotional scenes were seen as lowerclass, while there would be a whole drama of inheritances with any illegitimate children. Divorce, on the other hand, was a social and financial disaster.

I loved meeting the other American girls who’d married into British peerage, and I loved the sneaky, gossipy plotting. (I especially loved when one of the less popular girls, Minnie Paget, who turns her English connections into a sort of business, doing introductions for Americans, and the others discuss whether they ought to pay her to avoid her  social attacks.)

Obviously Jennie is Winston Churchill’s mother, but I didn’t love the Winston Churchill scenes as much as I liked the rest of the book. It seemed a bit heavy to alternate discussions about how useless he was with young Winston exhibiting military talent and extreme stoicism.

This is a great historical drama, with memorable, complex characters in beautiful European settings.