Two months after his twenty-first birthday, a young Harvard student arrived to join his father the American Ambassador in London. Jack, as he was known to family, had no idea how his journey to England on the eve of war would come to change and shape his life. Jack’s beloved sister Kick was presented at Court that summer and hailed by the Press as ‘most exciting debutante’ that year. She introduced her brother to a small circle of young aristocrats, all descended from families that had long ruled England. Fascinated by books on Britain’s history and tales from the Court of King Arthur, Jack felt immediately at home.
The eager student from Boston was soon sharing tea with a thirteen-year-old Princess Elizabeth, partying at Blenheim Palace and speeding across Europe as the borders were closing. Amongst the last to escape Berlin he would return with a secret Embassy note predicting hostilities ‘within a week’. With sister Kick and brother Joe he raced to Parliament to see Chamberlain declare war and Churchill rise to inspire a nation in its hour of need. Jack was spell-bound. He would forge lifelong bonds of friendship sharing such dramatic times with his young aristocratic circle. This family circle, after Kick’s marriage, would then come to play an astonishing role in shaping Jack’s actions from the Cuba Missile Crisis to Berlin when the free world came close to nuclear Armageddon.
In John F. Kennedy: The London Story, the author reveals the extraordinary role Britain came to play in Jack’s life. By looking at his early life, we see how he became the man to lead and inspire the free world. Ideal for any history or politics enthusiasts, or anyone with an interest in how early events shape a life.