Mr. Churchill in the White House

Mr. Churchill in the White House

Robert Schmuhl

Liveright. 350 pp.

Flying boats, private trains, slippers, secret excursions, sleepless nights, not to mention wars in two hemispheres. Plenty here to keep you reading Schmuhl's just published book.

A Cheerful & Comfortable Faith

A Cheerful & Comfortable Faith

Lauren F. Winner

Yale. 272 pp.

This was my second or third reading of Winner's book; I can't remember which. I appreciated it so much that I purchased a copy for myself. It's now one of my go-to references for many things Anglican. 

Of particular interest to me this go-around were her comments about Colonial burial traditions where she writes: One of the great mysteries of gentry Virginia deathways is who prepared the corpse for burial. English precedent would suggest that Virginians assigned this task to women lovingly preparing the bodies of their husbands and children for the grave, a last act of attentive, embodied devotion? Or did gentry delegate the preparation of the corpse to slaves? The evidence is too sketchy to permit a confident answer."

So I have to thank Winner for suggesting to me a possible future avenue of research.