Month: January 2022

“Churchill Defiant,” by Barbara Leaming: Still the Best on Churchill Postwar

“Churchill Defiant,” by Barbara Leaming: Still the Best on Churchill Postwar

Barbara Leaming: “Others Heard Taps, Churchill Heard Reveille”

Churchill Defi­ant: Fight­ing On 1945-1955, by Bar­bara Leam­ing. Lon­don: Harp­er Press, 394 pages.

“Great cap­tains must take their chance with the rest. Cae­sar was assas­si­nat­ed by his dear­est friend. Han­ni­bal was cut off by poi­son. Fred­er­ick the Great lin­gered out years of lone­li­ness in body and soul. Napoleon rot­ted at St. Hele­na. Com­pared with these, Marl­bor­ough had a good and fair end to his life.” —Win­ston S. Churchill, Marl­bor­ough: His Life and Times, 1936, Book Two.

A decade on, still a book to read

Read­ers some­times ask for the best books to read on Churchill’s career after the Sec­ond World War.…

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What Winston Churchill was Doing on January 24th

What Winston Churchill was Doing on January 24th

It seems something was always going on in Churchill's life on January 24th. It is best known as day his father died (1895), the day he predicted he would die too (1953)--and when he did (1965). A synopsis of each January 24th in his life would be interesting—as it would be for September 11th, that day of infamy.

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Wikipedia: Churchill’s World War Accounts, History or Memoirs?

Wikipedia: Churchill’s World War Accounts, History or Memoirs?

It is important to get this right, because Churchill's accounts of the two world wars are often incorrectly described as histories. He was adamant that this was a job for later historians.

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“Greatest Law Giver”: The Truth behind Churchill’s Mussolini Bouquets

“Greatest Law Giver”: The Truth behind Churchill’s Mussolini Bouquets

It has been observed that politicians often say nice things about foreign leaders when they owe them lots of money. As Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1927, Churchill negotiated Italy’s payment of her war debt to Britain, which Mussolini was still honoring in 1933. But this is too flippant, and there is more to the question. 

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Driving Miss Nancy: Churchill, Wolseley and Lady Astor

Driving Miss Nancy: Churchill, Wolseley and Lady Astor

Churchill opted to drive himself...a bad sign, Thompson said: “It either means that he is cross and subconsciously wants to smash up something, or that he is dangerously elated and things will get smashed up anyhow through careless exuberance.”

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Churchillian Maxims: “Take the Enemy into Consideration”

Churchillian Maxims: “Take the Enemy into Consideration”

"The German General Staff called this long-prepared operation by the code name Alberich, after the malicious dwarf of the Nibelungen legend. They left their opponents in the crater fields of the Somme,"

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