William Hickey

— Bringing the gossip since 1933

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OBJECTING to the longtime obsession with Winston Churchill’s boozing, his grandson and former Tory minister Nicholas Soames now insists: “He didn't drink too much...it always comes up. I'll tell you the truth about the drink.”

These days in the House of Lords, Soames, who was close to his grandfather, pictured, adds: “My mother used to say, ‘I never ever saw him the worse for drink and very often the better! They say Winston drank a lot at dinner but the idea he was not completely on top of it all is ridiculous.”

Bon viveur Nicholas mischievously concludes: “When you consider that in 1940 he had the entire future of the western free world on his shoulders, I reckon he was entitled to a whisky and soda at six in the evening”