November 2019 - Richard M. Langworth

Churchill’s Memorable Allusions to Shakespeare’s Richard II

29 November 2019 Comments 0 Comments

“Allusions to Richard II” is extracted from an article for the Hillsdale College Churchill Project. For the original text, click here.

Richard II and “This Sceptr’d Isle.”

We are asked: “Churchill quoted Shakespeare’s famous lines, ‘This scepter’d isle,’ in one of his speeches. They are the words of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, from Richard II, Act 2, sc. 1. Could you direct me to the speech?”

Churchill knew his Shakespeare and had a near-photographic memory. Darrell Holley’s Churchill’s Literary Allusions tells us he alludes to Shakespeare more than any other English author. King…

Winston Churchill and Emery Reves: Correspondence, 1937-1964

22 November 2019 Comments 0 Comments

Winston Churchill and Emery Reves: Correspondence, 1937-1964, edited by Sir Martin Gilbert. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1997, 415 pages, Amazon $8.95. This updated review was first published by the Hillsdale College Churchill Project.

Emery Reves, from the ground up

Admirers of Sir Martin Gilbert were pleased and touched to see his chronicle appear, now over twenty years ago. But few expected it would amount to much more than a useful research tool. We were wrong, and quickly realized why Sir Martin and Wendy Reves were so keen to get it published.…

Don Vorderman 1930-2018: The Best Editor I Ever Had

19 November 2019 Comments 3 Comments

AboutMy remembrance of Don Vorderman was published in shorter form in The Automobile, December 2019.

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“History with its flickering lamp stumbles along the trail of the past, trying to reconstruct its scenes, to revive its echoes, and kindle with pale gleams the passion of former days.” —Winston S. Churchill, 12 November 1940

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Writers rarely talk about writing among each other. It’s a very personal thing, and it’s almost always hard to do well, none of which is too conducive to cheery cocktail chitchat. Most of us would rather visit a dentist than face up to the task of beginning the next piece, though it’s not quite so awful once the commitment is made and the thing is under way.…