June 2009 - Richard M. Langworth

Churchill Books for Young Readers

26 June 2009 Comments 1 Comment

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.

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.…

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“Dogfight under a carpet…”

26 June 2009 Comments 2 Comments

Churchill allegedly compared Russian politics to a “dogfight under a carpet.” It was mentioned in The Economist of 17 November 2005: “Like watching dogs fighting under a carpet, was how Churchill described Russian politics. On November 14th the carpet stirred, when President Vladimir Putin announced that Dmitry Medvedev, head of the presidential administration since 2003, was to become first deputy prime minister.” It seems to be fairly well known. Can you give me the exact quote and a citation? —P.C.

Unfortunately, because it’s an amusing line that sounds a bit like him, I cannot. We searched Churchill Online, including Churchill’s own fifteen million words—all his books, articles, speeches and published papers.…

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Did Churchill Praise Hitler?

25 June 2009 Comments 12 Comments

"I am surprised that the head of a great State should set himself to attack British members of Parliament who hold no official position and who are not even the leaders of parties. Such action on his part can only enhance any influence they may have, because their fellow-countrymen have long been able to form their own opinion about them and really do not need foreign guidance." —WSC, 1938

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Baseball: Pitch Counts, Match-ups and the Manager

24 June 2009 Comments 0 Comments

Hank: “Why is your manager pulling Lannan? He’s just struck out Drew....” RL: “Over 100 pitches. Surprised he brought Lannan back this inning. The skipper worships pitch counts and match-ups, regardless of the situation or individual. Youklis is up and bats right-handed, so he’s calling for a right-hander.” Hank: “Tavarez was pretty rough when he pitched for us...” RL: “And still is...”

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Churchill Artist Richard Deane Taylor

24 June 2009 Comments 0 Comments

The publishers did make good efforts to lighten WSC's eyes (which in life were very light blue). Unfortunately, they cropped the top of WSC’s head, incurring the ire of Lady Soames and this writer, and somewhat spoiling the effect. They promised to fix this in the second edition, and they did so, happily for all, not the least Richard Deane Taylor himself.

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Quotations Winston Churchill Never Said: A Few Additions

19 June 2009 Comments 17 Comments

A website named “IL Conservative” posted in June 2009 eight Churchill “quotations,” six of which he never said. These quotations are all over the Internet, none of them attributed to WSC. They just seem to multiply and get passed on, like the common cold. They are all examples of “Churchillian Drift” (or “Yogi Berra Drift,” if you are a baseball fan): neat little sayings attached to somebody famous to make them sound more interesting.

The purpose of my “Red Herrings” appendix of eighty incorrect quotations in Churchill by Himself is to counteract the raft of misinformation conveyed, largely through the web, but it’s like the Dutch boy sticking his finger in the dyke.…

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Great War — “With the grenadiers”: Churchill (seated, center) and fellow officers of the 6th Royal Scots Fusiliers, Ploegsteert, Belgium, 1916. At WSC’s right is his longtime colleague in war and peace, Archibald Sinclair. (Creative Commons, Samleighton87)

A New Edition of “Thoughts and Adventures”

2 June 2009 Comments 0 Comments

An erudite new foreword and extensive footnotes instruct the modern reader by describing events, people and places no longer familiar. There is also a thick set of notes, on the origin of each essay, its titular and textual variations. In many cases we learn how it came to be written.Truly this is as eminent an edition of Thoughts and Adventures as we could hope to have—a tribute to the editor and Mr. Courtenay, as to the author. It serves inform future generations of Churchill’s political instinct, judgment, foresight and magnanimity.

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End of Glory: “Into the Storm” with Brendan Gleeson and Janet McTeer (2009)

2 June 2009 Comments 2 Comments

Into the Storm, a television drama broadcast by the BBC and HBO. Produced by Ridley Scott, directed by Thaddeus O’Sullivan. Brendan Gleeson as Winston Churchill and Janet McTeer as Clementine Churchill. Screenplay by Hugh Whitemore.

Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the Gate:
“To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his gods…”
—“Horatius,” stanza XXVII in Lays of Ancient Rome, by Thomas Babbington Macaulay. Recited at the beginning and at the end of “Into the Storm.”…

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