Dark Lady

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Jennie Jerome grew up as the daughter of a Wall Street speculator and later became known as Lady Randolph Churchill. She was the mother of England's most celebrated statesman. Forceful and determined, she spent her early years in exile in Europe, where she lived through revolution and mass killing. Even so, she rose to become the first American woman to win a place in London's highest social circles and to take an active part in British political life.

In this biography, Charles Higham turns to sources that earlier writers had largely passed over. The result is a closer look at Jennie's personality and at the world she moved through, a society in which she was admired for her beauty and her ambition.