One of the great ironies of the extraordinary life of Winston Churchill is that his one-time mortal enemy, Jan Smuts, became his most respected friend.
In fact Churchill decreed that the Afrikaner should head Britain's War Cabinet in the 1940s if Churchill himself were killed.
A clue to the bond these two men had is to be found on the war leader's desk in his home at Chartwell.
The back of the desk is set with framed photographs of his family and friends - in front is a portrait of the South African statesman.
I recently spent a day at Chartwell and it was one of the most memorable of my life. The house, which is imposing but not stately, is set among the soft wooded hills of Kent half an hour out of London.
Inside as well outside in the park-like garden one gets quite intimate glimpses into the mind and soul of the man who pulled Britain through its most perilous years.
The home itself gives the feeling the owners are just out for the day.
His books are still in their shelves and although, through a clever device, one cannot remove any without the aid of a screwdriver, one can spot his well-thumbed favourites.
The one and only novel he wrote is there along with his other books, and one remembers he won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
I had, the previous day, visited the Cabinet War Rooms beneath Whitehall. It had been almost 60 years to the day that the caretaker of the Rooms switched off the lights and stepped out into King Charles Street locking the door to the labyrinthine underground chambers from which the Allies conducted the war.
The rooms were abandoned on August 16 1945, at the end of the war.
But those who had so often sat there to confer on the gravest issues of the day ordered them to be sealed off exactly as they were.
Forty years later a section was opened to the public. Now, 60 years later, the rest have become the Churchill Museum.
In a city renowned for its lively and imaginative museums this is one of its most fascinating.
The Rooms were created in 1938 and became fully operational from September 1939. During the war 115 Cabinet meetings were held down there and from them four of Winston Churchill's speeches to the nation - including his "finest hour" speech - were made.
To walk down those steps from King Charles Street is to walk into the drama of 60 years ago.
One hears the simulated ringing of the heavy Bakelite telephones, the muffled sound of air raid sirens above and the "crump, crump" of falling bombs.
The Cabinet Room itself is a low-ceilinged room with rows of tables and office chairs facing the main table with the leather padded captain's chair from which Churchill presided. Marks on the arms reveal his odd habit of digging his nails into the wood.
One sees the spartan room where Churchill slept. His private dining room and kitchen are exactly how he left them in 1945.
There are the rooms used by the Joint Intelligence Staff complete with maps and pins.
A fascinating addition, opened by Queen Elizabeth this year, is the huge Churchill Museum which occupies the bunker where the war's Joint Planning Staff met. It now features Churchill's life from 1874 to when he died in 1965.
There are 74 audio-visuals including documentary footage, interactive presentations and hands-on displays.
The dozens of exhibits view his life section by section - his childhood (his baby rattle is there); his pathetic schoolboy letters to his father (who disliked him) and to his promiscuous mother.
One looks into his colourful career as a journalist and as a military officer.
It all adds up to a very searching probe into the life of the 20th century's greatest Englishman.
A fascinating aspect to this room is a long glass-topped table where, by pressing appropriate icons along its edge, one can call up any date during the war and read, beneath the glass, the happenings of that day and even retrieve once top-secret photocopies of documents pertaining to that day's events.
It was the following day that I took a train from Charing Cross to the pleasant town of Sevenoaks from where one catches a taxi to Chartwell, Churchill's residence from 1923 until his death.
The 40ha estate overlooks the Kentish Weald and is certainly worth a whole day (there's a visitors' centre complete with restaurant).
The house is of red-brown brick and is set upon terraces with interesting walled sections - walls built with commendable skill by Churchill himself - and water features engineered by Churchill.
The house looks down into a small valley and what Churchill called Swan Lake - a lake he and a gardener excavated.
A tour of the house provides an intimate peep into the lives of Winston and Clementine Churchill and their rather fractious children. "Clemmie" hated the place at first.
The architect who was called in to make alterations shared her view. It was dark, gloomy and damp and its outer walls were overwhelmed by ivy just as the garden was choked by rampant rhododendron.
It was transformed into something approaching beautiful and when Churchill was ousted from Parliament in 1929 he spent the next 10 "Wilderness Years" working in the garden, painting and writing.
Oil painting was one of his hobbies but his income, for much of his career, came entirely from freelance journalism and books.
He was never really wealthy and in the 1930s he announced he had to sell. A South African mining magnate stepped in and settled his debts, enabling him to stay on.
In 1945 when the Labour Government swept into power he again lost his seat and, at the age of 72, announced that he was selling Chartwell.
This time half a dozen friends bought it and donated it to the National Trust with the stipulation that the Churchills stay there as James Clarke visits Chartwell, the home of Sir Winston Churchill, and the Cabinet War Rooms in London, now the Churchill Museum, where the Allies planned the strategies of the Second World War, Both are just as he left them long as they lived.
Footnote: It is a good idea to book a B&B around Sevenoaks because it is within striking distance not only of Chartwell but of a surprisingly large number of castles as well as other historic homes and gardens.
See Visit Britain (formerly British Tourist Authority), 011-325-0343. Fax: 011-325-0344. E-mail: [email protected]
- This article was originally published on page 7 of The Star on September 17, 2005