This is John Batchelor. One of the consequences of the tragedy of the Eastern Front and the Western Front,

the First War, is that they called it the Great War. It was the prelude to a much more horrible event,

the Second War, although they are just one great big battle. A new book, Mr. Churchill in the White

House, tells the story of Winston Churchill, a soldier in the Great War, also a member of the cabinet associated with Gallipoli, and that's a future work by Nick Lloyd, the Callipoli campaign, associated with disaster and setback, was in the trenches for a while, returned to the cabinet,

and spent the in-between wars time, 1918 to 1939, wondering around in the commons, warning

that what happened in the Great War was the conditions that will set up a

much worse conflagration. We know now that it happened. And Churchill's first visit to the White

House during wartime was after the Pearl Harbor attack. He'd been at war since September of 39

and had become prime minister in the

middle of 1940 during the disaster of the retreat from the German offensive in the spring

of 1940. But what we're looking at now is Churchill at the White House many times with FDR as they talked about the war.

And it was important that first visit for Churchill to present himself as a friend and ally of the United States,

these two working together, not rivals, accompanying each other.

But Churchill had to choose a bed.

And this is the story Robert Schmull tells of Churchill's choice of beds at the White House.

Also, Eleanor Roosevelt raised in eyebrow every time he came wandering down the second floor corridor,

the residence corridor, wrapped in a bath towel

with a cigar in one hand and a brandy and another, I fancy. In the event, this is the first night

at 22nd of December in 1941. U.S. is at war with Japan and Germany and Italy have declared war in the U.S.

And Churchill wants to sleep comfortably.

He also changes all bedrooms into his office space.

He likes to work in bed.

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