How much alcohol did Winston Churchill actually drink? William Manchester’s “The Last Lion” series on the former British Prime Minister has a thorough breakdown on his drinking exploits. Here’s an eye-opening breakdown. “The legend that he is a heavy drinker is quite untrue," writes Manchester. "Churchill is a sensible, if unorthodox, drinker. There is always some alcohol in his bloodstream, and it reaches its peak late in the evening after he has had two or three scotches, several glasses of champagne, at least two brandies, and a high ball, but his family never sees him the worse for drink.” While certainly “unorthodox”, Manchester may be stretching it a bit by calling Churchill’s habits “sensible”. The drink-by-drink routine paints a slightly different picture: — 2-3 Scotches for breakfast — Champagne with lunch (then brandy as a post-meal digestive) — 90-minute nap — Post-nap high-balls — Champagne, cognac and Scotch with dinner Ever the performer, though, Churchill’s alcoholic consumption had a storytelling purpose. “He encourages absurd myths about his alcoholic capacity partly to furbish his macho image.” continues Manchester. “And partly because Europeans still like to think that their leaders are men who can hold their liquor. Winston tipples off and on all day but never gets drunk.” As always, Churchill describes it best in his own words: “All I can say is that I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.”
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@TrungTPhan Churchill biographer @aroberts_andrew might have something to say about this. He did consume more alcohol than most, but he seems to have hailed from the Dean Martin school of drink-acting. Always a glass at hand but rarely drunk.