2025 - Richard M. Langworth

When Rab Called Churchill a “Half-Breed American”

5 February 2025 Comments 0 Comments

“Rab said he thought that the good clean tradition of English politics, that of Pitt as opposed to Fox, had been sold to the greatest adventurer of modern political history.... He believed this sudden coup of Winston and his rabble was a serious disaster and an unnecessary one: the “pass had been sold” by Mr. C[hamberlain], Lord Halifax and Oliver Stanley. They had weakly surrendered to a half-breed American whose main support was that of inefficient but talkative people of a similar type...” —Jock Colville, May 1940

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Ken Eberts 1943-2024: His Art Made Us Say: “I Was There”

30 January 2025 Comments 0 Comments

In the world of automotive artists, Ken Eberts ranked with the best. His amazing eye for detail focused on artfully researched, nostalgic scenes, placing vintage motorcars in their original settings. William Jeanes wrote: “His work has a deja vu quality that may make you say to yourself, ‘I’ve been there before.’ The places are real, the cars are real, and the details of his settings are painstakingly accurate. Yet the moments never actually happened. Or did they?”

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French Magnanimity: De Gaulle’s Gift of a Lalique Cockerel

24 January 2025 Comments 0 Comments

“The conversation turned to the French Fleet, and Clementine said she hoped that its ships and crews would carry on the fight with us. De Gaulle curtly replied that what would really give the French Fleet satisfaction would be to turn their guns ‘On you!’ (meaning the British). Winston tried to mediate but Clementine interrupted him, and said in French: ‘No, Winston, it is because there are certain things that a woman can say to a man which a man cannot say, and I am saying them to you—General de Gaulle!’” After this verbal fracas, the General was much upset, and apologised profusely, and later presented her with the Lalique.

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Sir Winstonus: “And thou, fair dame, art not of angels born, Thy tongue’s keen edge doth all who cross thee warn. Yet in thy zeal to strike with jest and jeer, Thou dost forget the mirror drawing near.” Shakespeare’s “Henry VIII and Catherine” by the artist B. Trell, 1887. (Wikimedia Commons)

Churchllian Shakespeare: AI Presents “You’re drunk…You’re ugly”

20 January 2025 Comments 0 Comments

Setting: A grand hall in Westminster. Tapestries hang from the walls, and the faint clink of goblets echoes through the air. Enter: Sir Winstonus Churchillius, goblet in hand. Lady Bessica Braddockia approaches, fanning herself dramatically. Lady Bessica: “Hail, Sir Winstonus, thou art returned, From feasting, drinking, or some sport absurd? Thy face is flushed, and eyes like moons do glow; Dost thou drown England’s cares in wine's deep flow?”

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Update: AI Churchill Quotes: Yes, We Have No Bananas

15 January 2025 Comments 1 Comment

They may have slipped on a banana, but ChatGPT has only been at this for a few years. "Give them another half decade and they'll probably have picked up every word Churchill wrote." So, before we lazily laugh at the tech boffins' failure accurately to pinpoint the Great Man's every word, we might stop to consider: They are just getting started. As Churchill was wont to say on occasion: "Let not the slothful chortle."

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Secrets of Statecraft with Andrew Roberts: Churchill, 150 Years On

10 January 2025 Comments 1 Comment

Honor(u)red to be invited to join Lord Roberts, at Secrets of Statecraft. It was fun to chat with the author of the foremost one-volume life of Churchill, about where Sir Winston stands on his 150th birthday. We mutually concluded that he stands as tall as ever. Beyond that, we need to remember him because he spoke everlasting truths about the relations between peoples, about governance, about the value of liberty. Those are as relevant as ever today.

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Reviewing Netflix’s Churchill: The Things We Do for England…

5 January 2025 Comments 2 Comments

There’s a way to derive a mostly correct picture of the man from this show: ignore Part 1. The other three parts also suffer from occasional forays into fiction. But they are more accurate, with honest dialogue, well-chosen quotations and spectacular footage, much of it freshly colorized. Kudos to Andrew Roberts, Jon Meacham, Allen Packwood and Catherine Katz for keeping it on track, and to Lord Roberts for his eloquent finale.

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