Levenger

I’m currently analysing a few of Churchill’s speeces for an academic paper. After listening to the audio files and reading along I found a lot of paragraphs which were left out in the radio speeches. It’s especially evident in “Their Finest Hour” from June 18th, 1940 where only a fifth of the text made it to the radio. At one point it sounds like the audio file has been edited. Were the audio files full radio speeches or just excerpts? —N.K., Copenhagen

What you are listening to is likely a postwar recording of speeches Churchill made for HMV/Decca, which were edited and truncated in later versions. However, the June 18th speech was rebroadcast in full by Churchill that evening over the BBC.

Levenger’s book, The Making of the Finest Hour, includes a CD containing the full broadcast. But many Churchill Speech CDs, and LPs before them, contained only excerpts. Some of these were taken from the BBC broadcasts, but most were recorded by Churchill years later.

No recordings were permitted in the House of Commons at that time, leaving us with two inferior possibilities: Churchill’s broadcast speeches over the BBC, or in some cases postwar recordings, both of which—said those who heard them in the Commons—lack the fire of the originals.

See Sir Robert Rhodes James, “Leading Churchill Myths: ‘An Actor Read
His Speeches over the Wireless,’” Finest Hour 92, posted on the Churchill Centre website.

Sir Robert noted: ‘Problems then arise from the records, Harold Nicolson lamenting that it was necessary to bully Churchill into broadcasting, and, referring to a June 18th broadcast, “he just sulked and read his House of Commons speech over again.” Nicolson was Information Minister at the time. Churchill never liked broadcasting, but there is no evidence whatever that he was replaced by anyone, and speech researchers have confirmed this.’

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Please send me some book recommendations on Churchill’s life for young readers. By young, I mean a boy of seven years old. My nephew asked me about the book I was reading (Churchill: The Unexpected Hero by Paul Addison), and after I told him a little bit about it, he wanted to know more. I’d appreciate any recommendations. —R.M., Mass.

addison Paul Addison’s Unexpected Hero is probably the best “brief life” in print. If your nephew is into that at seven, he has great promise, and you should buy him a membership in The Churchill Centre. The student rate is $25, which represents a 50% discount.

Finest Hour 140, Autumn 2008, our fortieth anniversary number, contains an article, “The Fifty Best Books of the Past Forty Years.” Copies are available for $5 from the Centre at 888-WSC-1874, or email me for a copy of the text.

Scanning the “Best Fifty” for ones he’d might like, may I suggest:

Martin Gilbert, Churchill: A Photographic Portrait
Douglas Hall, The Book of Churchilliana (Churchill souvenir items)
Fiona Reynoldson, Churchill—best ever for readers under 10.
Douglas Russell, Winston Churchill: Soldier
John Severance, Soldier, Statesman Artist—excellent for young people
Mary Soames, A Churchill Family Album—photo documentary

Most of these are available on Amazon, or search for secondhand copies on MX Bookfinder.

I also modestly recommend my book of quotations, Churchill by Himself,
which (much to my regret) Amazon is discounting to $11.98 to move stock at the moment.

"The Happy Warrior," a hardbound reprint (with new introduction and commentary) on the "Eagle" cartoon series of 1958.

Also available is the text of four reviews of new books for young people in Finest Hour 142. The best of these is The Happy Warrior, only available from Levenger. This is an elegant hardbound reproduction of a cartoon strip Churchill biography originally published in 1958 by The Eagle, a “boy’s own” type of weekly periodical. Levenger provides excellent color reproductions and new commentaries by the original publisher and other authorities. The Happy Warrior sells for $39, but is on sale for $32 through 13 July 2009.

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