Book description
During the Second World War, Churchill's cigar was such an important
beacon of resistance that MI5, together with the nation's top
scientists, tested the Prime Minister's supplies on mice rather than
risk sabotage. Today Winston Churchill and his cigar remains a global
icon, memorialised by a one-hundred-and-one-foot statue of a cigar in
Australia, while his cigar stubs are treasured as relics.
Using original archival research and exclusive interviews with
Churchill's staff, Stephen McGinty, an award-winning journalist,
explores Churchill's passion for cigars and the solace they brought. He
also examines Churchill’s lasting friendship with Antonio Giraudier, the
Cuban businessman who for twenty years stocked Churchill's humidor,
before fleeing Castro's revolution. Stephen McGinty is a senior writer
with the Scotsman
newspaper. He has also worked for the Sunday Times
in London and the Glasgow Herald
. His first book, This Turbulent Priest
(2003), was described by the Daily Telegraph
as 'the year's most surprising page-turner'. His favourite cigar is a
Cohiba Robusto.
