“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.…
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.…
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.
IntroductionIn 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.…
“Three Outstanding War Books” is Excerpted from an essay for the Hillsdale College Churchill Project. Why settle for the excerpt when you can read the whole thing full-strength? Click here.
Better yet, join 60,000 readers of Hillsdale essays by the world’s best Churchill historians by subscribing. You will receive regular notices (“Weekly Winstons”) of new articles as published. Simply visit https://winstonchurchill.hillsdale.edu/, scroll to bottom, and fill in your email in the box entitled “Stay in touch with us.” (Your email remains strictly private and is never sold to purveyors, salespersons, auction houses, or Things that go Bump in the Night.)…
Excerpted from the Hillsdale College Churchill Project. Why settle for the excerpt when you can read the whole thing ? Click here.
Please join 60,000 readers of Hillsdale essays by the world’s best Churchill historians by subscribing: visit https://winstonchurchill.hillsdale.edu/, scroll to bottom, and fill in your email in the box, “Stay in touch with us.” (Your email remains strictly private and is never sold or distributed to anyone.)
“Sir Winston’s Gettysburg essay…...is a fantasy which transcends all my objections to exploring the what-ifs and might-have-beens in that great war.”…
