Year: 2010

Provide for Your Library

Provide for Your Library

“BILL’S BOOKS”

“What shall I do with all my books?” Churchill asked in Thoughts and Adven­tures. It is a ques­tion we should all ponder—while there is still time.

In the Novem­ber 1st issue of Nation­al Review, Neal B. Free­man writes a touch­ing and sen­si­tive appre­ci­a­tion of the library of the late William F. Buck­ley, Jr.: an eclec­tic mix, from tomes on the harp­si­chord to biogra­phies of Elvis Pres­ley, from books inscribed to him to fever­ish­ly marked-up books relat­ing to Buckley’s own writ­ing, to the clas­sics he admired. Because he had not thought to leave spe­cif­ic instruc­tions, his library was bro­ken up, scat­tered to the winds—and not every­thing in it reached an appre­cia­tive owner.…

Read More Read More

Translations of “The Second World War”

Translations of “The Second World War”

I‘m work­ing on an arti­cle and there are some details I need to know: (1) The num­ber of lan­guages into which Churchill’s Sec­ond World War mem­oirs were trans­lat­ed and (2) The num­ber of lan­guages into which the 1959 abridged one-vol­ume edi­tion was trans­lat­ed. —G.A., Spain

Accord­ing to Ronald I. Cohen’s Bib­li­og­ra­phy of the Writ­ings of Sir Win­ston Churchill (Lon­don: Con­tin­u­um, 2006, 3 vols., I: 729-30), The Sec­ond World War was trans­lat­ed into nine­teen lan­guages: Czech, Croa­t­ian, Dan­ish, Dutch, French, Ger­man, Greek, Hebrew, Ital­ian, Japan­ese, Kore­an, Nor­we­gian, Pol­ish, Por­tuguese, Russ­ian, Ser­bian, Span­ish, Swedish and Turkish.…

Read More Read More

World War II Official Histories

World War II Official Histories

Does Eng­land have an offi­cial His­to­ry of WW2 like the “Green Books” that are print­ed in the US as their offi­cial his­to­ry of WW2 and where might find them?  —L.L.

Yes: sev­er­al spe­cial­ized mul­ti-vol­ume series, under the umbrel­la title His­to­ry of the Sec­ond World War, were pub­lished by HMSO (Her Majesty’s Sta­tionery Office, since 2006 part of the Office of Pub­lic Sec­tor Infor­ma­tion with­in the UK Nation­al Archives, for­mer­ly the Pub­lic Records Office).

There are five sub-series, for exam­ple, Llewellyn Wood­ward, British For­eign Pol­i­cy in the Sec­ond World War (five vols.,…

Read More Read More

Robert Hardy at 85: The Greatest “Churchill”

Robert Hardy at 85: The Greatest “Churchill”

Writ­ten for a birth­day trib­ute in Octo­ber 2010….

We have all heard about the art of Tim­o­thy Robert Hardy, even though we don’t need to do so, since it is self-evi­dent. But that real­ly doesn’t mat­ter, does it? His three-decade involve­ment with the Churchill saga pro­vides a bal­sam­ic reit­er­a­tion of what we know, are glad that we know, pity those who do not know, and are proud to be asso­ci­at­ed with.

It began with his peer­less por­tray­als of Sir Win­ston in the 1981 “Wilder­ness Years” TV doc­u­men­tary; David Susskind’s 1986 “Lead­ers” series; a Lon­don stage play; the mini-series “War and Remem­brance”; and—just this August 20th—a bril­liant read­ing from Churchill’s trib­ute to “The Few” on its 70th annniver­sary.…

Read More Read More

“Jennie” with Lee Remick Revived on CD

“Jennie” with Lee Remick Revived on CD

We are hap­pi­ly informed that one of the finest-ever films about Win­ston Churchill, fea­tur­ing the late Lee Remick as his moth­er in Jen­nie: Lady Ran­dolph Churchill, is now avail­able on CD from Ama­zon. It was orig­i­nal­ly a tele­vi­sion doc­u­men­tary, “The life and loves of Jen­nie Churchill,” broad­cast on ITV in Britain and PBS in the USA in 1974.

On 4 May 1991 the Inter­na­tion­al Churchill Soci­ety held a din­ner for Lee, then dying of can­cer, on the Queen Mary in Long Beach, to present her with our Blenheim Award for notable con­tri­bu­tions to our knowl­edge of the life and times of Win­ston Churchill.…

Read More Read More

Talking Churchill in the Baltic, 1995

Talking Churchill in the Baltic, 1995

I told the Baltic mayor how Churchill had hoped to force a "showdown" with Stalin over Poland if he got back to Potstam. What the result would have been is a matter for conjecture. “Much of Eastern Europe, given harsh reality, had no chance for liberty,” I said, “but we should not denounce the efforts Churchill made.” Mayor Teodors Enins listened politely, but then he just sadly shook his head. "No. You should have fought them anyway."

Read More Read More

Winston S. Churchill 1940-2010

Winston S. Churchill 1940-2010

You can read about Win­ston Churchill’s career else­where. I’d like rather to indulge in the remem­brance of a friend.

We met through the post forty-two years ago, when he became the third hon­orary mem­ber of the Churchill Study Unit, after his grand­moth­er and his father. The lat­ter had only just sent a let­ter of encour­age­ment to our lit­tle group of stamp col­lec­tors when he him­self died. It was June, 1968. In send­ing con­do­lences, I asked Win­ston to take his father’s place. He accept­ed, adding, “It is con­sol­ing to know so many share my loss.”…

Read More Read More

Jack Le Vien’s “The Valiant Years”

Jack Le Vien’s “The Valiant Years”

Would you hap­pen to have any inside infor­ma­tion on when, if ever, the BBC will release “The Valiant Years” doc­u­men­tary in DVD for­mat? Var­i­ous rumors con­tin­ue to cir­cu­late on the Inter­net but there doesn’t appear to be any source with defin­i­tive infor­ma­tion. —H.A.

It has been in the thoughts of many to repro­duce Jack Le Vien’s famous doc­u­men­tary. Although a short­er pro­duc­tion, “The Finest Hours,” nar­rat­ed by Orson Welles, has been repro­duced on a com­mer­cial CD (left), the mul­ti­ple-part “Valiant Years” was not until just recent­ly. It is now avail­able on DVD from MediaOutlet.com.…

Read More Read More

RML Books

Richard Langworth’s Most Popular Books & eBooks

Links on this page may earn commissions.