Randolph’s proclivity for insulting others and provoking argument was also a persistent source of conflict. After Churchill found himself the target of a particularly cutting remark, he wrote to Randolph to cancel a planned lunch together, “as I really cannot run the risk of such insults being offered to me, & do not feel I want to see you at the present time.” Churchill tended to forgive his son, always ending his letters—even this one—with the closing, “Your loving father.”
