July 2016 - Richard M. Langworth

Cars & Churchill: Blood, Sweat & Gears (2) Daimlers…

31 July 2016 Comments 0 Comments

Having written about cars and Winston Churchill for fifty years, I finally produced a piece on them both. From exotica like Daimler, Napier and Rolls-Royce to more prosaic makes like Austin, Humber and Wolseley, the story was three decades in coming. I am satisfied that it is now complete.

Part 2, continued from Part 1: Excerpt only. For footnotes, all illustrations and a roster of Churchill’s cars, see The Automobile, (UK), August 2016. A pdf of the article is available upon request: click here.

Wolseley to Austin

In the early 1930s Churchill switched from Wolseley to Austin cars: small fours and big sixes.…

Cars & Churchill: Blood, Sweat & Gears (1) Mors the Pity

23 July 2016 Comments 15 Comments

“You fool!” the policeman shouted. Then he “swore most richly for some seconds.” Churchill’s head hung. “He did have the civic sense to say he was sorry,” Thompson continued. “...the matchless voice of the man identified him at once to the constable.” ‘Sorry, Mr. Churchill,’ the policeman apologised. "Then the majesty of the constable’s office and the disgusting guilt of the violator brought forth, in gentle sarcasm, a caution that withered Churchill and kept him silent clear to the Channel. ‘Do try to stay in the road, sir.’”

The Real Churchill’s London (Part 2)

17 July 2016 Comments 0 Comments

London: The Evening Standard published an article on Churchill’s “favourite spots in the capital” (16 June 2016). It offered only Pol Roger champagne, the National Liberal Club, Romeo y Julieta cigars, a Churchill bar, Paxton & Whitfield’s cheese shop, Austin Reed’s menswear and Brown’s Hotel. With the exception of the National Liberal Club this assortment would more aptly be entitled “Churchill’s household staff’s favourite shopping places.” The real Churchill’s London, “Spinning Top of Memories,” is that official biographer Sir Martin Gilbert. The text is online. There you may read “of Ungrand Places and Moments in Time.”…