Month: March 2009

“The Last Lion” Volume III is Published

“The Last Lion” Volume III is Published

Over 400 read­ers asked when we will see the third and final vol­ume  of William Manchester’s Churchill biog­ra­phy, The Last Lion: Win­ston Spencer Churchill, Defend­er of the Realm 1940-1965. Answer: Ama­zon was ship­ping copies as of mid-Octo­ber 2012—only twen­ty-four years since Vol­ume II!

Mr. Reid kind­ly asked me to proof the man­u­script for Vol­ume III, as did Mr. Man­ches­ter for Vol­ume II.

This will be good news to the many Man­ches­ter fans who have wait­ed for years. Paul Reid’s vol­ume is writ­ten in the Man­ches­ter style, as dra­mat­ic and grip­ping as the first two vol­umes.…

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“Never give in”: Was this a three-word speech?

“Never give in”: Was this a three-word speech?

Did Churchill ever make a three word speech, “Nev­er Give Up,” and then just sit down? —A.S., Riga, Latvia

That sto­ry is all over the web, con­stant­ly repeat­ed. But it is entire­ly wrong. I think it springs from the many inac­cu­rate “wit and wis­dom” quote books.

“Never give in” (not “up”)

The three words (“in” not “up”) were part of Churchill’s 20-minute speech to the boys at Har­row, his old school, when he vis­it­ed Har­row for their annu­al songfest (“Songs”) on 29 Octo­ber 1941. The full speech is pub­lished in Robert Rhodes James, ed.,…

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Obama and the Churchill Bust -Out

Obama and the Churchill Bust -Out

 

Ever since the BBC and The Dai­ly Tele­graph revealed that Pres­i­dent Oba­ma had sent George W. Bush’s Jacob Epstein Oval Office bust of Win­ston Churchill pack­ing (while retain­ing the bust of Abra­ham Lin­coln),  the media has been abuzz with spec­u­la­tions over the implied symbolism.

Per­son­al­ly I think the media just demon­strates its degen­er­ate irre­spon­si­bil­i­ty to keep fan­ning these non- issues. Fifty years ago a dif­fer­ent media would have pub­lished some thought­ful pieces on the future of the US-UK rela­tion­ship. Not any more.

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose….When Pres­i­dent Bush had a Churchill bust in the Oval Office, zealots would occa­sion­al­ly demand its return, since in their view Bush was unde­serv­ing, or was using it to pro­claim him­self anoth­er Churchill.…

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Eleuthera Byways: The Queen’s Baths

Eleuthera Byways: The Queen’s Baths

PoOn the Queen’s High­way a few miles north of Gre­go­ry Town, about 300 yards before the Glass Win­dow bridge, pull off the road across from  a sandy track lead­ing up the hill toward the Atlantic on your right. You can’t miss it: the Min­istry of Tourism has recent­ly erect­ed a mark­er. You’ve arrived at the Queen’s Baths.

Walk up toward the Atlantic as the bush thins out and the sand takes over. Soon the sand thins and you’re walk­ing on bare coral. Watch your step to avoid the uneven sur­face and pock­marked holes. As you approach the ocean, work your way to the left (north), keep­ing Har­bour Island on the hori­zon ahead of you.…

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Eleuthera Byways: Edwin’s Fishlake

Eleuthera Byways: Edwin’s Fishlake

First pub­lished in The Eleuther­an, Sep­tem­ber 2008; Edwin’s Tur­tle Lake Marine Pre­serve, with a fine new dock and the bot­tle shack restored in Decem­ber 2014.

Edwin’s of old

Three miles south of Governor’s Har­bour, on the right side at the S-bends as the road plunges toward Pal­met­to Point, is a large salt­wa­ter lake. Passers­by who stop to inves­ti­gate will find the remains of a curi­ous shed built of mor­tar and beer bot­tles, the amber, green and clear glass sort­ed by colour, bot­toms fac­ing out. A few yards away, obscured by bush and weath­ered by the years, was a wood­en sign whose words were just legible:

Edwin’s Fish­ing Lake

Estab­lished March 10th 1954

The First Fish­lake of the Bahamas

Over 20,000 fish of 32 vari­eties have

been placed in this lake.…

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“Correrai Ancor Piu Veloce…” Beverly Rae Kimes 1941-2008

“Correrai Ancor Piu Veloce…” Beverly Rae Kimes 1941-2008

None who read it will ever forget "Man on Fire!": Beverly Kimes’s biography of Tazio Nuvolari. It was one of those signal experiences when you remember where you were. I read it in galleys on the "Broadway Limited" en route to Chicago: started in Newark and put it down somewhere west of Harrisburg. She wound up with the legend on the great racing driver's tombstone: Correrai ancor piu veloce per le vie del cielo. (You will travel faster still upon the highways of heaven.) "Ah Tazio," she ended: "Godspeed." And that's all that really matters in the end: thoughts of old and good times, which eventually blot out the last sad ones. Ah Bev...Godspeed.

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Albert Finney in “The Gathering Storm”

Albert Finney in “The Gathering Storm”

“The Gath­er­ing Storm,” a film for tele­vi­sion pro­duced by BBC Films and HBO Inc.. Star­ring Albert Finney as Win­ston Churchill and Vanes­sa Red­grave as Clemen­tine. First aired April 2002, 90 minutes.

Churchill films sel­dom engen­der una­nim­i­ty. But every­one who watched the pre­view, by kind invi­ta­tion of the British Con­sul in Boston, had the same reac­tion. “The Gath­er­ing Storm” is real­ly good. Even in a cyn­i­cal and anti-hero age, film­mak­ers still can avoid reduc­ing Churchill to a flawed bur­lesque or a god­like car­i­ca­ture. Except for huge gap in the sto­ry line, “The Gath­er­ing Storm” is outstanding.…

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