Month: June 2019

escape
The escaped desperado: Durban, Natal, 1908.
Churchill’s Escape from the Boers, 1899

Churchill’s Escape from the Boers, 1899

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Escape from the Boers, 1899:

Please can you com­ment on, the “Dutch­man, Bur­gen­er by name,” men­tioned by Churchill in his account of his escape from the Boers in his auto­bi­og­ra­phy, My Ear­ly Life? Is he one and the same per­son as the Charles Burn­ham men­tioned by Sir Mar­tin Gilbert in Churchill: A Life? Per­haps the sur­name was changed to pro­tect Mr Burnham`s posi­tion in South Africa? Yet thoughthree decades had elapsed by the pub­li­ca­tion of My Ear­ly Life. It seems cer­tain that Churchill knew of Burn­ham and the role that he had played.…

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D-day
Model of the Mulberry harbor on Gold Beach in the library at Chartwell.
Lectures at Sea (1): Churchill and the Myths of D-Day

Lectures at Sea (1): Churchill and the Myths of D-Day

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“Churchill and the Myths of D-Day is excerpt­ed from a lec­ture on the 2019 Hills­dale Col­lege Round-Britain cruise. Hills­dale cruis­es with “lec­tures at sea” are an annu­al event, usu­al­ly occur­ring in May or June. For infor­ma­tion on the 2020 cruise to Jerusalem and Athens, click here.

I’m here to talk about Win­ston Churchill. I know this audi­ence knows who he was! Did you know a sur­vey of British school­child­ren reveals that one in five think he was a fic­tion­al char­ac­ter? And bet­ter than half think Sher­lock Holmes was a real person?

My book is about the non-fic­tion­al Churchill.…

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drunk
“He seems to tolerate this cocktail night.” (Lustige Blätter, Berlin, 23 April 1942; the bottles are marked “Blood” and “Tears”). The Nazis were fond of the bar room image—and no more accurate than modern-day writers. The attitude of the British lion, however, nicely represents British attitudes about the endless Brexit debate.
Memo to Peggy Noonan and the WSJ: Churchill was NOT a drunk

Memo to Peggy Noonan and the WSJ: Churchill was NOT a drunk

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On 15 June in the Wall Street Jour­nal opin­ion colum­nist Peg­gy Noo­nan wrote a per­cep­tive piece about the prospects and chal­lenges for Boris John­son as Britain’s new Prime Min­is­ter: “Eng­land Needs a Slap, and So Does Chi­na” (sor­ry, that link car­ries a paywall).

It was a good col­umn, say­ing essen­tial­ly what Britons of all stripes were say­ing to me on a recent visit.

“Talk to me about any­thing, except Brex­it.” “Right, we vot­ed, so let’s get on with it.” “We’re tired of plat­i­tudes and use­less debates.”  “Keep did­dling and we end up with Cor­byn.” “Just do it.”…

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Portland
“Like giants bowed in anxious thought….”
Churchill Remembered on the Hillsdale College Cruise (3): Portland, 1914

Churchill Remembered on the Hillsdale College Cruise (3): Portland, 1914

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The King’s Ships: “We may now pic­ture this great Fleet, with its flotil­las and cruis­ers, steam­ing slow­ly out of Port­land Har­bour, squadron by squadron, scores of gigan­tic cas­tles of steel wend­ing their way across the misty, shin­ing sea, like giants bowed in anx­ious thought. We may pic­ture them again as dark­ness fell, eigh­teen miles of war­ships run­ning at high speed and in absolute black­ness through the nar­row Straits, bear­ing with them into the broad waters of the North the safe­guard of con­sid­er­able affairs.”

Irish Sea to Portland: Churchill Connections, 8-12 June 2019

The 2019 Hills­dale Col­lege Cruise around Britain was a unique oppor­tu­ni­ty to recall the Churchill saga by pass­ing or vis­it­ing key places.…

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Scotland
WSC with his daughter Mary on a later visit to Scapa Flow. (Orkney Library)
Churchill Remembered on the Hillsdale College Cruise (2): Scotland, 1939

Churchill Remembered on the Hillsdale College Cruise (2): Scotland, 1939

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“It was like the oth­ers a love­ly day….On every side rose the pur­ple hills of Scot­land in all their splen­dour…. I felt odd­ly oppressed with my mem­o­ries…. No one had ever been over the same ter­ri­ble course twice with such an inter­val between. No one had felt its dan­gers and respon­si­bil­i­ties from the sum­mit as I had, or, to descend to a small point, under­stood how First Lords of the Admi­ral­ty are treat­ed when great ships are sunk and things go wrong.”

Northern Britain: Churchill Connections, June 4th to 7th

The 2019 Hills­dale Col­lege Cruise around Britain offered a unique oppor­tu­ni­ty to recall the Churchill saga by pass­ing or vis­it­ing key places, start­ing with Eng­lish Chan­nel and North Sea venues from Southamp­ton to York­shire to Edin­burgh and the north of Scot­land.…

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Yorkshire
The German High Seas Fleet at Kiel. From Southampton to Norfolk, Yorkshire to the Firth of Forth and Scapa Flow, the enemy’s powerful navy focused Churchill’s strategic planning in the First World War.
Churchill Remembered on the Hillsdale College Cruise (1): Yorkshire, 1914

Churchill Remembered on the Hillsdale College Cruise (1): Yorkshire, 1914

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"Outrage in Yorkshire fell hard against Churchill, who vowed to force the Germans back out if he had to dig them out “like rats in a hole.” There was indignation, he wrote, "at the failure of the Navy to prevent, or at least to avenge, such an attack upon our shores. What was the Admiralty doing? Were they all asleep?... We had to bear in silence the censures of our countrymen."

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RML Books

Richard Langworth’s Most Popular Books & eBooks


Winston Churchill, Myth and Reality

Churchill by Himself

Churchill in His Own Words

Churchill and the Avoidable War

The Definitive Wit of Winston Churchill

The Patriot’s Churchill

Triumph Cars - The Complete Story
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