My mother claims breaking bread together changes people. She firmly believes that if you put Churchill and Hitler in a room together for dinner they might have avoided World War II. “You can’t have a meal in silence. It’s impossible, and if people talk they discover they have more in common than what divides them.” She was waving around a glass of red wine when she uttered that line. When she put it down, she continued. “Plus Churchill really knew how to tell a dinner party story. He would have made Hitler laugh and you simply can’t drop a bomb on a funny man.”

I have my doubts about Hitler’s sense of humour, although she’s probably right about Churchill’s anecdotes. She’s reading a his amazing life story at the moment. Apparently he was a pensioner befo...

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