My darling Clemmie

This Valentine’s Day, would-be suitors might take a leaf out of wartime PM Winston Churchill’s love letter writing book. Best known for his fighting talk (‘we shall fight on the beaches… we shall fight in the fields and in the streets… we shall never surrender’), we see a more tender side in his 57 years of affectionate correspondence with wife Clementine. From their courtship, when the pair sent notes along the corridors of Blenheim Palace, until a year before Churchill’s death, the couple exchanged around 1,700 letters. One of the most touching was written on their first wedding anniversary, 12 September 1909, when Churchill was away in Strasbourg: ‘…A year has gone - & if it has not brought you all the glowing & perfect joy which fancy paints, still it has brought a clear bright light of happiness & some great things. My precious & beloved Clemmie my earnest desire is to enter still more completely into your dear heart & nature & to curl myself up in your darling arms. I feel so safe with you & I do not keep the slightest disguise. You have been so sweet & good to me that I cannot say how grateful I feel to you for your dear nature, & matchless beauty…’ Ever the politician, Winston goes on to attack an opponent’s speech (most of the couple’s letters included some political discussion), while his closing paragraph is domestic, describing his lodgings: ‘We have no servant… there is a regular whirlpool of linen & clothes all over my room. Alack…’ Now there’s the way to a girl’s heart.