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David Lough Biography

David Lough

Born in 1950, David Lough won an open history scholarship to Oxford University where he won 1st class honours, studying under historians Richard Cobb, Michael Howard and Theodore Zeldin.  He pursued a career in financial markets, starting in Asia and investment banking, before founding a private banking business in 1988.  It was sold in 2013, by which time it employed a hundred people advising many prominent families across the range of their private affairs, including their investments, tax affairs and inheritance planning.  

A former member of the London Stock Exchange and Fellow of the Chartered Securities Institute who has acted as ‘blind trustee’ for government ministers while in office, David Lough returned to history on his retirement, using his experience to research the untold story of Winston Churchill’s tangled financial affairs.  He edited a magazine that he founded in the 1990s and has written regularly  for the wealth management industry and its publications.  An experienced public speaker at conferences and dinners, he is a member of the London Library’s Founders’ Circle.

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Author News

  • Recent Foreign Rights sales 29 Apr 2020

    Chinese rights in John Hatcher’s The Black Death: An Intimate History

    Chinese rights in David Lough’s book on Winston Churchill’s correspondence with his mother Darling Winston, Dearest Mamma

  • 'Darling Winston, Dearest Mamma' is Book of the Year 17 Dec 2018

    Congratulations to David Lough whose collection of correspondence between Winston Churchill and his mother , Darling Winston, Dearest Mamma, was a Daily Mail Book of the Year. They wrote ‘This sparkling volume will be devoured by all who revere Churchill.’

  • Darling Winston, Dearest Mamma serialised 08 Sep 2018

    David Lough’s collection of correspondence between Winston Churchill and his mother Darling Winston, Dearest Mamma is serialised in the Daily Mail today.

  • Churchill book optioned for film 22 Dec 2017

    David Lough’s No More Champagne: Churchill and his Money has been optioned by Carnival Films.

  • US deal for Winston Churchill letter collection 23 Oct 2017

    North American rights in David Lough’s Darling Winston, Dearest Mamma, a selection of letters between Winston Churchill and his mother, have been bought by Pegasus.

  • Collection of Churchill letters sold to Head of Zeus 16 Mar 2017

    UK & Commonwealth rights in an edition of Winston Churchill’s correspondence with his mother have been sold to Head of Zeus. Darling Winston: My Dearest Mama edited by David Lough, whose last book No More Champagne: Churchill and his Money was shortlisted for the History Today Award, will be published next year.

  • No More Champagne heads the list of ‘Best biographies of 2015′ in The Wall Street Journal 27 Nov 2015

    David Lough’s No More Champagne: Churchill and His Money continues to gather superb reviews:

    “This book brilliantly illuminates one of the few unexplored aspects of Winston Churchill’s life – his private finances. Based on a wealth of fresh documentary evidence, it also reveals much about his larger-than-life character. In these fascinating pages Churchill emerges as extravagant in every way, especially in his addiction to risk.” Piers Brendon

    “This excellent and entertaining work is worth reading for the lists of more than 1,000 bottles of champagne and 250 bottles of brandy that Churchill got through in 1949 alone”.Vicky Pryce, Prospect

    “This is the first biography to focus on Churchill’s business affairs. To view someone from just one angle is usually to deform them, but David Lough, drawing on compelling material including Churchill’s tax records, more than justifies his audit” Nicholas Shakespeare, Daily Telegraph

    “a surprising page-turner” The Economist

  • FT reviews David Lough's No More Champagne 15 Oct 2015

    The Financial Times review of David Lough’s No More Champagne: Churchill and his Money can be found http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/arts-and-books/book-review-no-more-champagne-by-david-lough

    ‘This excellent and entertaining work is worth reading for the lists of more than 1,000 bottles of champagne and 250 bottles of brandy that Churchill got through in 1949 alone. ’

  • David Lough on Churchill and his Money 30 Sep 2015

    In this new video, author David Lough talks about Churchill’s tangled personal finances, the subject of his new book No More Champagne.

    Full video

  • David Lough and Roger Crowley reviewed in Times 19 Sep 2015

    The Times writes of Conquerors: How Portugal Seized the Indian Ocean and Forged the First Global Empire

    The historian Roger Crowley promises: “a long-range epic of navigation, trade and technology, money and crusade, political diplomacy and espionage, sea battles and shipwrecks, endurance, reckless courage and extreme violence”. His pulsating narrative does exactly that.

    http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/books/non-fiction/article4557758.ece

    And says of David Lough’s No More Champagne: Churchill and his Money

    He is a courteous guide, whose knowledge of the arcane world of investment (and its pitfalls) enables him to explain what went wrong and how Churchill managed to scrape through. The result is a fascinating read, although an unnerving one for anyone who has the tastes and appetites of Mr Toad and the income of Mr Rat.

    http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/books/non-fiction/article4560854.ece

  • David Lough's book on Churchill begins serial in Daily Mail 12 Sep 2015

    David Lough’s No More Champagne: Churchill and his Money begins its Daily Mail serial today http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3231410/Winston-spendaholic-teetered-brink-bankruptcy-saved-secret-backhanders-new-book-Chuchill-s-finances-reveals-spent-40-000-year-casinos-54-000-booze.html

Author's Books