Cover image of 'Kingmaker," a new biography of Pamela Harriman

That cover photo does not do her justice. Pamela Churchill Harriman (née Digby, 1920-99) was one of the great beauties of the Anglo-American world well into her seventies, and other photos reveal that. She was ridiculed) throughout most of her life as a courtesan, having slept with hundreds of men, a great many of them among the wealthiest and most powerful of the age. But she was much more than that. And the gifted English author Sonia Purnell marshals newly available evidence to prove the case in her magnificent new biography, Kingmaker. That new evidence reveals Pamela—everyone called her that—to have played a pivotal role in building the vital Anglo-American alliance in World War II. She worked directly at Winston Churchill’s side during the early years of the war. It’s an astounding story, not previously told in detail, that justifies the subtitle of the book.

A libertine when single, a devoted wife when married

Despite her scarlet reputation, and her openly stated determination to befriend whomever she wished, Pamela was consistently faithful throughout each of her three marriages. All accounts seem to concur that she was a devoted spouse to all three men, bearing without complaint the psychological abuse, faithlessness, and desertion of her first husband and managing closely the end-of-life care of the other two. The elder daughter of a minor British aristocrat, Pamela blundered into an ill-advised marriage to Winston Churchill’s son, Randolph (1911-68). She was then 19, he 28. Surprisingly, his father was then emerging from isolation as an outcast in the Conservative Party. Suddenly, Winston Churchill stood alone for consideration as the next Prime Minister as doubts mounted about the wisdom of Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement policy

Kingmaker: Pamela Harriman’s Astonishing Life of Power, Seduction, and Intrigue by Sonia Purnell (2024) 525 pages ★★★★★

Photo of Pamela with her then-family, the Winston Churchills, the subject's family of her first marriage as told in this new biography
Pamela Digby Churchill (far left) is at Chartwell in 1945 with her father-in-law, then-Prime Minister Winston Churchill, his wife Clementine, and other family members. The distance between Pamela and Winston is deceiving. Other family members, principally her husband Randolph and his sisters, deeply resented their closeness, Image: BBC

Fame far and wide, and it only grew with time

Before she reached the age of 30, Pamela had already met most of the movers and shakers who determined the course of the Allied partnership in World War II—and become intimate with many of them. And as the years went by, the fame she had already won earned her invitations from the rich and famous throughout the Western world. Thus, by the time she reached her seventies, it could fairly be said that she knew almost any boldfaced name of the era. The Kennedys were intimates. Aristotle Anassis and Stavros Niarchos. Gianni Agnelli of Fiat (a long-term lover). Baron Elie de Rothschild. Prince Aly Khan. And so very many more

Pamela’s three marriages

From a world historical perspective, those first three years of the war were the high point of Pamela’s life. For her as well, it was many years before she began to feel fulfilled again. But then, both in her own mind and in that of political insiders in Washington, DC, she moved on to new heights as the savior of the Democratic Party in the United States. By that time, she had married Averell Harriman (1891-1986), one of the richest men in the country. The money had come courtesy of his father, who was one of the most hated robber barons of the late 19th century. But Averell had long since built a reputation as an influential anti-Communist liberal closely associated with the Democratic Party. He was a perennial player in Washington, DC, prominent on lists of potential Cabinet members in any future Democratic administration.

The years in the wilderness

Of course, between the Churchill years and her marriage with Harriman, there was a long stretch of time during which she strained in vain to achieve what she had long craved: a position in power, involved in politics at the highest level, comparable to what she had had during the war. Naturally, Purnell treats those years with the same attention to detail as she does elsewhere. During much of that time, Pamela was married to Leland Hayward (1902-71), a producer who brought the long-running hit, The Sound of Music, to the New York stage. Then, after another long stretch of years in the wilderness, Harriman’s wife of many years died. Pamela married him the following year.

Rebuilding the Democratic Party

Between Pamela’s own fame on both sides of the Atlantic, and Harriman’s access to the highest levels of the Democratic establishment as well as his money, she had finally achieved a perch on the ladder of power that enabled her to become a player with a claim on real power. And she used that power to bring her force of will and her natural tendency toward optimism to bring together the elements of unstoppable momentum to refashion the Democratic Party in her own image.

Backing Bill Clinton early

Pamela’s unceasing work through eight years led directly to the election of Bill Clinton as President in 1992. She had identified Clinton early as a potential comer, soon after he lost his reelection campaign as Governor of Arkansas in 1980, and supported him at every turn thereafter. At the same time, the influence she accumulated during that work in the 1980s brought her a prize she had also coveted for many years, when Clinton appointed her as US Ambassador to France. And there, in Paris, her fame reached even greater heights. The French couldn’t get enough of Pamela. But her life ended in 1999 at 79 years of age, not long after she resigned the post. As Purnell notes, Pamela was then “arguably the most famous diplomat in the world and the most powerful courtesan in history.”

If you’re a fan of biographies, or if either the history of World War II or of American politics captivates you, this is a book not to be missed. It may change your mind, as it did mine, about both of those subjects.

About the author

Sonia Purnell interviewed at a book festival, author of this new biography
Sonia Purnell (right) at the 2019 Chiswick Book Festival. Image: Roger Green – Wikipedia

As a journalist, Sonia Purnell has worked at three of Britain’s leading newspapers. But she is best known in the United States for A Woman of No Importance, a biography of Virginia Hall, one of the most celebrated American spies and saboteurs who operated behind Nazi lines in World War II France. (The book was adapted into a popular film.) She is also the author of three other biographies, including her most recent, Kingmaker.

Previously I reviewed the author’s earlier biography, A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II (The WWII American woman spy who kept the French Resistance alive).

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