Lady Mary Soames, born Mary Spencer-Churchill, the youngest child of Winston Churchill and Clementine Churchill, has died, aged 91.
An accomplished author in her own right, whose life story offers a fascinating but oblique perspective (which she was more than well aware of) on the history of the 20th century, she appears to have been the most grounded, and balanced, (and the only one who made a happy marriage), of the four gifted but troubled Churchill children.
Indeed, uniquely in the family, she appears to have been the only one among her siblings who was not overawed or overwhelmed by her family name and history, instead, in her middle age, wryly writing about it with a nice mixture of insight, wit, cool detachment and affection which won her both (somewhat surprised) critical acclaim and popular plaudits.
There are some nice obits in the British media.
