This is John Batchel, a conversation with the author, Michelle Paradie, his book, The Light of Battles,

The Story of Eisenhower, from 43 to 44, up to and including the invasion, June 6, 1944.

In this part, Michelle describes Eisenhower arriving back in Britain after a 10-day holiday at Christmas time 43.

And he and his aider met by Kay Somersby, his driver, and Kay maneuvers London spectacularly.

And then Michelle very carefully characterizes the relationship between Eisenhower and Kay Somersby.

Michelle Paradie, The Light of Battle, more of this later.

Yeah, it's a wonderful moment.

So Eisenhower, as you mentioned, returns after a sojourn briefly in the United States,

where he's just bombarded and then has to take

what it turns out to be, I think, a well over a 24-hour journey back to the United Kingdom.

But because of the notorious English fog or smog, really, being even worse than it normally is,

he ends up having to land in Scotland and take a train all through the night,

which doesn't get him into London until about 12, 12 o'clock in the morning. And they're waiting for him as Kay Somersby,

as you mentioned, his driver since he arrived in 1942, and probably one of the closest people to him in the war.

I would actually say, you know, there's a lot of speculation and there's a lot of

frankly, Puri and interest, not the least from people like FDR in the sort of romantic character

of the relationship.

And there's been all sorts of, you know, writing and speculation primarily about that ever

since.

But I found their relationship profound, primarily, you know,

irrespective of whether or not it had a romantic dimension, but she is just the closest

person to him because she's really the only person he can really trust in what is otherwise

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