Month: January 2021

Fake Churchill Quotes: Lady Astor and Other Women Nemeses

Fake Churchill Quotes: Lady Astor and Other Women Nemeses

Pure nonsense

Mak­ing the rounds again is an off-col­or piece of “Churchillian Drift.” Years ago, colum­nist Jon­ah Gold­berg greet­ed its last appear­ance by call­ing it “A Thorny Porn-y Issue.” Porn-y maybe, Thorny not. Win­ston Churchill nev­er said any­thing like it.

For con­nois­seurs of made-up Churchill quo­ta­tions, here’s the alleged exchange. Sir Win­ston says to a woman at a social event: “Madam, would you sleep with me for a mil­lion pounds?” The lady stam­mers: “My good­ness, Mr. Churchill. Well, I suppose….”

Churchill inter­rupts: “Would you sleep with me for a fiv­er?” She responds hot­ly: “What kind of woman do you think I am?!”…

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It’s Baaaack! The Winston Churchill Bust Furore, Round 3

It’s Baaaack! The Winston Churchill Bust Furore, Round 3

N.B. The Epstein sto­ry is expand­ed in The Amer­i­can Spec­ta­tor, 30 Jan­u­ary. 

It seems that every four or eight years we must have a Great Media Hoe­down over a bust of Win­ston Churchill by Jacob Epstein arriv­ing at, or depart­ing, the White House. The revolv­ing door bust belongs to the British Embassy. It has twice resided on loan in the Oval Office. Ipso fac­to, it has twice returned to the Embassy. Per­haps it should hang on a Zip line between the two build­ings to con­ve­nience the spir­it of the moment.

When­ev­er the Epstein makes a trip back or forth, the media explodes in spec­u­la­tion.…

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Old Kerfuffles Die Hard: The Churchill Papers Flap is Back

Old Kerfuffles Die Hard: The Churchill Papers Flap is Back

Boris John­son, who has sought com­par­i­son with Win­ston Churchill, denounced spend­ing nation­al lot­tery mon­ey to save the wartime leader’s per­son­al papers for the nation,” chor­tled The Guardian in Decem­ber. (The Churchill Papers cov­er 1874-1945. Lady Churchill donat­ed the post-1945 Chartwell Papers to the Churchill Archives in 1965.)

In April 1995 John­son, then a colum­nist for the Dai­ly Tele­graph, deplored the £12.5 mil­lion pur­chase of Churchill Papers for the nation. The lot­tery-sup­port­ed Nation­al Her­itage Memo­r­i­al Fund, said John­son, was frit­ter­ing away mon­ey on point­less projects and ben­e­fit­ing Tory grandees. John­son added: “…sel­dom in the field of human avarice was so much spent by so many on so little …”

The Memo­r­i­al Fund replied the Churchill Papers were a nation­al heir­loom under threat of being sold out­side the coun­try.…

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In Search of Winston Churchill’s First Political Cartoon

In Search of Winston Churchill’s First Political Cartoon

First Cartoon? The Current Contender

We are asked: what was the first Win­ston Churchill polit­i­cal car­toon? The ear­li­est dis­cov­ered so far is this one, from the “Essence of Par­lia­ment” col­umn in Punch on 5 Decem­ber 1900. It appeared about two months after young Win­ston was elect­ed Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Old­ham, Lan­cashire, on 1 Octo­ber. Alas the car­toon (artist unknown) pos­es more ques­tions than it answers. Churchill is being urged to exhib­it mod­esty, a qual­i­ty he was not known for. But who is doing the urg­ing? We asked sev­er­al authorities.

I first thought the man at right might be Joseph Cham­ber­lain, known for his mon­o­cle.…

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New Annotated Bibliography of Works About Churchill, 1905-2020

New Annotated Bibliography of Works About Churchill, 1905-2020

  s To view and search these “Works about,” please vis­it the Bib­li­og­ra­phy at the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project. Here­with, some com­ments and a few sam­ple entries.

Introduction

In 2018, Andrew Roberts wrote in Churchill: Walk­ing with Des­tiny, works about Sir Win­ston Churchill topped 1000. This cat­a­logue piles on, list­ing more than 1100, near­ly 900 of which we have anno­tat­ed. Win­ston Churchill was the sub­ject of his first biog­ra­phy in 1905 when he was 30 years old. The flow hasn’t stopped. Here in the 21st cen­tu­ry, 100 years lat­er, some years see over 20 new Churchill titles.…

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