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Rafferty
A “Paintatous” Masterpiece: Paul Rafferty on Churchill’s Riviera Art

A “Paintatous” Masterpiece: Paul Rafferty on Churchill’s Riviera Art

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Paul Raf­fer­ty, Win­ston Churchill: Paint­ing on the French Riv­iera. Lon­don: Uni­corn Pub­lish­ing, 2020, 208 pages. $50. Excerpt­ed from a review for the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project. To view the orig­i­nal, with more illus­tra­tions, please click here.

A work of art on Churchill’s art

This beau­ti­ful book com­bines Churchill’s favorite French paint­ing venues with fas­tid­i­ous research on their loca­tions. The hor­i­zon­tal for­mat blends qual­i­ty bind­ing with bril­liant col­or on thick, coat­ed paper, and the price is a bar­gain. Paul Raf­fer­ty, him­self an artist, brings Churchill’s oils alive as adjuncts to WSC’s per­son­al­i­ty. (N.B.: this writer played a minor part in ver­i­fy­ing quotations.)…

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bibliography
(Hillsdale College Churchill Project, photo by Marc Kuritz)
New Annotated Bibliography of Works About Churchill, 1905-2020

New Annotated Bibliography of Works About Churchill, 1905-2020

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  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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White Russians
Admiral Kolchak and Anna Timiryova (his lover, seated to his right), with head of the British mission General Alfred Knox and English officers observing military exercises on the Eastern Front of the Russian Civil War, 1919. (Public domain, Wikimedia Commons)
Churchill and the White Russians: The Russian Civil War, 1919

Churchill and the White Russians: The Russian Civil War, 1919

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Extract­ed from “Churchill: A Mil­lion Allied Sol­diers to Fight for the White Rus­sians?” for the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project, Novem­ber 2019. For the orig­i­nal text click here.

A read­er refers us to The Polar Bear Expe­di­tion: The Heroes of America’s For­got­ten Inva­sion of Rus­sia 1918-1919 (2019). It repeats a mis­un­der­stand­ing about Churchill’s role in aid­ing the White Rus­sians against the Bol­she­viks. By the spring of 1919 in Rus­sia, we read:

…the cat was out of the bag: whether its allies—English, French, White Russians—liked it nor not, the U.S. was pulling out. On March 4, the British War Cab­i­net decid­ed to fol­low suit, ignor­ing the argu­ments of the vir­u­lent­ly anti-Bol­she­vik Win­ston Churchill, who as sec­re­tary of war had pro­posed increas­ing the Allied com­mit­ment in Rus­sia to one mil­lion men.…

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snipe
Gertrude Bell and friends at Giza, 12 March 1921. Camel riders, L-R: Clementine and Winston Churchill, Bell, Lawrence, bodyguard Walter Thompson. The snipe that Bell later committed suicide because of Churchill is far-fetched. (Wikimedia Commons)
Churchill: Scattershot Snipe and the Answers to It

Churchill: Scattershot Snipe and the Answers to It

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My broth­er Andrew Roberts, author of the new and vital Churchill: Walk­ing with Des­tiny, pass­es along a read­er snipe which nails rick­ety new planks on the creepy ship Churchill Snipes. Incred­i­ble as it may seem, the writer man­ages to cre­ate a few we’ve nev­er heard before. They will be added to my “Assault on Churchill: A Reader’s Guide.” As will anoth­er far­ra­go by a loopy astro­naut, about which you’ve prob­a­bly already heard.

Snipe synopsis

Snipe 1) “Why doesn’t Andrew Roberts spell out Churchill’s mis­takes? They were not all that innocent.”

Whole sem­i­nars could be devot­ed to whether Churchill’s mistakes—in fact exhaus­tive­ly cat­a­logued by Roberts—were inno­cent and well intend­ed, or mali­cious­ly cal­cu­lat­ed.…

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Drury
Senator Seabright Cooley (Charles Laughton) speaks in the Senate in “Advise and Consent.” Around him (l-r) are Will Geer (Minority Leader Strickland), Don Murray (Sen. Anderson), Walter Pidgeon (Majority Leader Munson), Malcolm Atterbury (Committee Chairman August), and Paul Ford (Majority Whip Danta). (Wikimedia)
“Advise and Consent” by Allen Drury: Mandatory Viewing by Senators?

“Advise and Consent” by Allen Drury: Mandatory Viewing by Senators?

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“And now for something completely different”

Apro­pos, of course, no cur­rent events in par­tic­u­lar, I pass along a rec­om­men­da­tion. It’s from a friend and fel­low polit­i­cal junkie. “The entire Unit­ed States Sen­ate should be required to sit through an end­less looped show­ing of Advise and Con­sent.” The 1962 film is based on Allen Drury’s  Pulitzer-prize win­ning  1959 nov­el. In the unlike­ly event you do not remem­ber the film, click here.”

I agree utter­ly. I must watch it again. It is not a light­heart­ed flick….

The Plot (excerpt from Wikipedia)

The Pres­i­dent of the Unit­ed States nom­i­nates Robert A. Leff­in­g­well as Sec­re­tary of State.…

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suffrage
WSC addressing suffragists, Dundee, 1909.
Churchill, Women’s Suffrage and “Black Friday,” November 1910

Churchill, Women’s Suffrage and “Black Friday,” November 1910

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“Churchill, Suf­frage and Black Fri­day”: excerpt­ed from my arti­cle for the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project. For the full text, includ­ing Churchill’s let­ters to the head of the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Police (22 Novem­ber 1910) and to Prime Min­is­ter Asquith (21 Decem­ber 1911), click here.

A Lon­don Uni­ver­si­ty stu­dent writes for help with his dis­ser­ta­tion. Its top­ic is the rela­tion­ship between Home Sec­re­tary Win­ston Churchill, the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Police, and their han­dling of women’s suf­frage demon­stra­tors in Novem­ber 1910. His ques­tions illus­trate Churchill’s domes­tic states­man­ship. Our answers refute the belief that Churchill stri­dent­ly opposed women’s suf­frage except on iso­lat­ed occa­sions in polit­i­cal tactics.…

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Dream
“The Dream,” 1947. Painting by Sal Asaro (www.salasaro.com)
Introduction to “The Dream”: Churchill’s Haunting Short Story

Introduction to “The Dream”: Churchill’s Haunting Short Story

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The Dream is repub­lished (from Nev­er Despair 1945-1965, Vol­ume 8 of the offi­cial biog­ra­phy) by the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project. To read it in its entire­ty, click here.

The Dream…

… is the most mys­te­ri­ous and ethe­re­al sto­ry Win­ston Churchill ever wrote. Yet the more we know about him, the bet­ter we may under­stand how he came to write it.

Replete with broad-sweep Churchillian nar­ra­tive, The Dream con­tains many ref­er­ences to now-obscure peo­ple, places and things. The new online ver­sion pub­lished by Hills­dale pro­vides links to all of them. You need only click on any unfa­mil­iar name or term for links to online ref­er­ences.…

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Thompson
Thompson with Churchill for the Harvard Speech, 6 September 1943. (Harvard/Wikimedia)
“Churchill’s Bodyguard” Mini-series: Walter H. Thompson

“Churchill’s Bodyguard” Mini-series: Walter H. Thompson

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The suc­cess of the movie Dark­est Hour has prompt­ed many to look up oth­er film and video pre­sen­ta­tions of the Churchill saga. One of these is the 2005 series on Wal­ter Thomp­son, Churchill’s Body­guard, which a col­league tells me is a use­ful doc­u­men­tary. It is. All thir­teen episodes are on YouTube. I watched sev­er­al with­out complaint—rare for me.

Walter Henry Thompson 

…was Win­ston Churchill’s pro­tec­tion offi­cer and detec­tive, on and off between 1921 and 1945. They had many adven­tures togeth­er, and Thomp­son wrote four books about his expe­ri­ences. The first, Guard from the Yard (1938, now very rare) involved Churchill and oth­ers whom Thomp­son protected.…

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Hyde
28 Hyde Park Gate in 2012. (Christie’s)
Hyde Park Gate: Churchill’s London Home, 1945-1965

Hyde Park Gate: Churchill’s London Home, 1945-1965

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Ques­tion: “Churchill owned both 27 and 28 Hyde Park Gate. Which one did he live in?” Answer: both.

1945-51

The Churchills pur­chased 28 Hyde Park Gate in Sep­tem­ber 1945. The fine attached brick house stands in a qui­et cul-de-sac, close to Hyde Park and Kens­ing­ton Gar­dens. They acquired the abut­ting num­ber 27 in March 1946. Accord­ing to Ste­fan Buczacki’s excel­lent book, Churchill and Chartwell, the gar­den wall between the two res­i­dences was knocked out to pro­vide a sin­gle gar­den. Num­ber 27 was ini­tial­ly acquired for need­ed office space, though Clemen­tine Churchill thought it an extrav­a­gance.…

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Bracken
Holding forth, London, 1941: Bracken lectures Dutch diplomat Eelco van Kleffens. Charles de Gaulle, seemingly oblivious, chats with U.S. Ambassador to Holland Tony Biddle. (Wikimedia Commons)
Brendan Bracken: “Winston’s Faithful Chela”

Brendan Bracken: “Winston’s Faithful Chela”

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“Stan­ley Bald­win, show­ing an unex­pect­ed famil­iar­i­ty with Indi­an phras­es, described Bren­dan Brack­en as ‘Winston’s faith­ful chela,‘ wrote the biog­ra­ph­er Charles Lysaght. “This is what gave Brack­en his place in his­to­ry, a minor but still an impor­tant one.”

The Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project has pub­lished two arti­cles on Bren­dan Brack­en, Churchill’s loy­al ally and friend for four decades. The first begins with a mem­oir by the late Ron Rob­bins, a Cana­di­an jour­nal­ist who ear­ly on cov­ered the House of Com­mons, where he met Brack­en. The post­script is by me, fol­lowed by reviews of the two Brack­en books by George Gale and A.J.P.…

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RML Books

Richard Langworth’s Most Popular Books & eBooks


Winston Churchill, Myth and Reality

Churchill by Himself

Churchill in His Own Words

Churchill and the Avoidable War

The Definitive Wit of Winston Churchill

The Patriot’s Churchill

Triumph Cars - The Complete Story
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