and those persecuted by the Nazis. Later life In the 1945 general election Bonham Carter stood for Wells, coming third, while in 1951 she stood for the winnable seat of Colne Valley. As an old friend, Churchill arranged for the Conservatives to refrain from nominating a candidate for the constituency, giving her a clear run against Labour. She was nonetheless narrowly defeated. In the 1953 Coronation Honours she was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE). She continued to be a popular and charismatic speaker for Liberal candidates, including her son-in-law Jo Grimond, her son Mark, and Jeremy Thorpe, and she was a frequent broadcaster on current affairs programmes on radio and television. In the postwar years, Bonham Carter was an active supporter of the United Nations and the cause of European unity, advocating for Britain's entry into the Common Market. In the non-political sphere, she was also active in the arts, including serving as a Governor of the BBC from 1941 to 1946, and a Governor of the Old Vic (1945–69). On 21 December 1964, Violet Bonham Carter was created a life peer as Baroness Asquith of Yarnbury in the County of Wiltshire, one of the first new Liberal peers in several decades. She became active in the House of Lords. Death Lady Violet Bonham Carter died of a heart attack, aged 81, and was interred at St Andrew's Church, Mells, Somerset, near the home of her late brother, Raymond. Writings Violet Bonham Carter was a diarist and biographer. Her works include: "Winston Churchill As I Know Him" by Violet Bonham Carter, in Winston Spencer Churchill: Servant of Crown and Commonwealth, ed. Sir James Marchant, London: Cassell, 1954. Winston Churchill as I Knew Him, Violet Bonham Carter (Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1965), published in the US as Winston Churchill: An Intimate Portrait. This book was begun in 1955, and its publication ten years later was the publisher's decision, awaiting Churchill's death. Lantern Slides: The Diaries and Letters of Violet Bonham Carter, 1904–1914, eds. Mark Bonham Carter and Mark Pottle (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1996) Champion Redoubtable: The Diaries and Letters of Violet Bonham Carter, 1914–1945, ed. Mark Pottle (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1998) Daring to Hope: The Diaries and Letters of Violet Bonham Carter, 1945–1969, ed. Mark Pottle (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2000) Winston Churchill As I Knew Him (1965) recounted how during the course of conversation at