Publisher's Synopsis
Download the opening three chapters by clicking the Extracts tab above. You'll also find our exclusive Winston Timeline, with details of this fascinating time in UK history.
Winston and Me tells the story of poor Edinburgh teenager Jamie Melville and his relationship first as batman and later as assistant to Winston Churchill, from the mud of Flanders to the House of Commons during the First World War.
Lying about his age to join the army, Jamie comes to the attention of the new Colonel of the 6th Battalion, Royal Scots Fusiliers, one Winston Churchill, seeking redemption in the trenches having resigned over the Dardanelles fiasco of 1915. Jamie becomes the Colonel's new batman, and is soon thrust into the line of fire.
Later, both are returned to civilian life, and when Churchill returns to the Cabinet, Jamie becomes assistant to the new Minister's Private Secretary and part-time literary agent Edward Marsh, who introduces Jamie to the artistic side of London life. Along the way Jamie falls in love with a nurse and makes contact again with his broken family, leaving him with a difficult choice to make: stay with Winston, or set off on his own.
Mark Woodburn was born in Edinburgh, 1968, and grew up in Scotland, Canada and South Africa. He currently lives in West Lothian, and is a season ticket holder at Heart of Midlothian FC.
