March 2020 - Richard M. Langworth

The Greatness of Alex Tremulis: A Car Designer from Another Era (1)

31 March 2020 Comments 1 Comment

My Tremulis piece was published in full in The Automobile, March 2020.

“That was a different time,” Alex Tremulis told me, recalling his heyday in car design. “The Forties through the Seventies. Back then a single person could often influence the shape of a car. Sometimes the whole car. Of course, lots of our ideas were sheer rubbish. But now and then, by luck or force of personality, we put something good into production.”

Many famous automotive designs did have whimsical beginnings. Bill Boyer put portholes on the rear roof quarters of the 1956 Ford Thunderbird to recall “the coachwork heritage.”…

Life Amid Chaos: “The Hope Still Lives…The Dream Shall Never Die”

23 March 2020 Comments 1 Comment

My brother Andrew Roberts inspired this post, when he asked for Churchill quotations about childbirth. Yes, even now, friends have brought a new life into the world. Three months ago, my son and daughter-in-law did likewise.

Life Goes On

On 30 May 1909, Clementine Churchill was pregnant with their first child, Diana. Winston, asking her to practice social distancing, wrote these beautiful words: “We are in the grip of circumstances, and out of pain joy will spring, and from passing weakness new strength will arise.”

Four and one-half decades later, his daughter Mary was a fortnight overdue for the birth of Charlotte, her fourth child.…

Churchill and George Bernard Shaw: Less than Meets the Eye

20 March 2020 Comments 3 Comments

We are constantly asked to verify the famous exchange. Shaw writes: “Am reserving two tickets for you for my premiere. Come and bring a friend—if you have one.” Churchill replies: “Impossible to be present for the first performance. Will attend the second—if there is one.” Though it’s lovely repartee, both of them denied it.