“Wartime talks between Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin were proving awkward until a drinking session lasting until 3am, newly released files show. In a Foreign Office account of the 1942 Moscow visit, an official recalls finding the men enjoying ‘food of all kinds… and innumerable bottles’. The mood was ‘merry as a marriage-bell’ although Churchill was ‘complaining of a slight headache’ by 1am. The letter adds: ‘The two great men really made contact and got on terms.’”
