Category: FAQs

Churchill’s Prep for the “Iron Curtain” Speech 1946

Churchill’s Prep for the “Iron Curtain” Speech 1946

Q: Where did Churchill write the Iron Curtain address?

When we first moved to the Unit­ed States we bought a home in New Canaan, Con­necti­cut that had once been owned by Bernard Baruch and used has his get-away. We were told that, as he and Churchill were friends, Churchill had been invit­ed by Baruch to stay there and it was there he wrote his Iron Cur­tain speech. We were nev­er sure whether this was true or whether it was some­thing a local real estate agent had dreamed up. There was anoth­er house down the road where George Wash­ing­ton was said to have slept on his way through!…

Read More Read More

Origins: “I’ll kiss him on all four cheeks”

Origins: “I’ll kiss him on all four cheeks”

Q: Churchill’s Kiss: A Cheeky Affair

I found myself using an alleged Churchill wit­ti­cism I have long known, but could not find in your book, Churchill’s Wit: The Defin­i­tive Col­lec­tion (2009). As I have it, Churchill was prepar­ing to meet Mar­shal Stal­in, and a diplo­mat­ic advi­sor said, “He will prob­a­bly expect to kiss you on both cheeks.” “Oh, that’s all right,” said Churchill, “as long as he doesn’t want to be kissed on all four.” Can you ver­i­fy this one?

My own main area of schol­ar­ly research is Samuel John­son, anoth­er sub­ject often mis­at­trib­uted. Good quote col­lec­tions more than just the quo­ta­tion and its source.…

Read More Read More

Churchill and Texas: The Complete History

Churchill and Texas: The Complete History

Washington, after Pearl Harbor. Texas Reporter: "Mr. Minister [sic], can you tell us when you think we may lick these boys?" [Pause while someone explained to Churchill the meaning of the American slang, “lick.”] WSC: "If we manage it well, it will take only half as long as if we manage it badly." Texas reporter: "In one of your speeches you mentioned three or four of the [war’s] great climacterics. Would you now agree that our entry into the war is one of these, sir?" WSC: I think I may almost say [affecting a Texas drawl] Ah sho’ do!"

Read More Read More

Bengal Famine: The Hottest of Churchill Debates

Bengal Famine: The Hottest of Churchill Debates

Bengal 1943-44

Most pop­u­lar by far: On both the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project web­site and this one, more read­er com­ment is engen­dered over Churchill’s role in the 1943 Ben­gal Famine than any oth­er sub­ject. A lot of it, pro and con, is by Indi­ans them­selves. This is under­stand­able. The food short­age that rav­aged Ben­gal in 1943-44 was the great­est human­i­tar­i­an cri­sis in India’s his­to­ry. Up to three mil­lion peo­ple died—5% of the province’s pop­u­la­tion. Pro­por­tion­al­ly, think 16 mil­lion Americans.

The book that start­ed the con­tro­ver­sy, Churchill’s Secret War, is now eight years old.…

Read More Read More

Athens 1944: Not Churchill’s Finest Hour? Hmm….

Athens 1944: Not Churchill’s Finest Hour? Hmm….

Question:

A r ead­er writes: “Rather late in the day, I have been read­ing The Spec­ta­tor (UK) Christ­mas Spe­cial dat­ed 15/21/29 Decem­ber 2018. Page 28 refers to one Ron­nie Boyd, who had been a teenage Ordi­nary Sea­man aboard HMS Ajax in Decem­ber 1944, when Win­ston Churchill arrived in Athens to try to end the ongo­ing civ­il war.

 “British forces ‘helped put down, with con­sid­er­able force of arms, a per­ceived partisan/communist uprising—the so-called Bat­tle of Athens, or the Dekemvri­ana in Greece,’ the arti­cle states. There fol­lows the extra­or­di­nary state­ment ‘Not Win­ston Churchill’s Finest Hour, it has to be said.’…

Read More Read More

Churchill had how many ideas a day? How many were good?

Churchill had how many ideas a day? How many were good?

Q: “Who made the crack that Churchill had a hun­dred ideas a day but only four of them were good?” —Bruce Sax­ton, Tren­ton, N.J.

A: There are sev­er­al can­di­dates and vari­a­tions. Tak­ing them as a group, Churchill had from six to 100 ideas dai­ly, of which between one and six were good. In order of the most like­ly. But it could be one of those all-pur­pose cracks applied to many people.

Roosevelt: fifty to 100 ideas, three or four good.

Pres­i­dent Roo­sevelt is the most like­ly to have said this, since he’s quot­ed more than any­one else.…

Read More Read More

Churchill, Canada and the Perspective of History (Part 3)

Churchill, Canada and the Perspective of History (Part 3)

Per­spec­tive of His­to­ry: Address to the Churchill Soci­ety of Ottawa, Ontario, Cana­da, on Sir Winston’s 144th birth­day, 30 Novem­ber 2018 (Part 3). We were kind­ly host­ed at Earn­scliffe by the British High Com­mis­sion­er, Susan le Jeune d’Allegeershecque.

Perspective, 144 Years On

Con­clud­ed from Part 2…. “The great move­ments that under­lie history—the devel­op­ment of sci­ence, indus­try, cul­ture, social and polit­i­cal structures—are pow­er­ful, almost deter­mi­nant,” wrote Charles Krautham­mer.

Yet every once in a while, a sin­gle per­son aris­es with­out whom every­thing would be dif­fer­ent. In recent times, only Churchill car­ries that absolute­ly required cri­te­ri­on: indis­pens­abil­i­ty… Take away Churchill in 1940 [and] Hitler would have achieved what no oth­er tyrant, not even Napoleon, had ever achieved: mas­tery of Europe.…

Read More Read More

Churchill, Canada and the Perspective of History (Part 2)

Churchill, Canada and the Perspective of History (Part 2)

His­to­ry and mem­o­ry: Address to the Churchill Soci­ety of Ottawa, Ontario, Cana­da, on Sir Winston’s 144th birth­day, 30 Novem­ber 2018 (Part 2). We were kind­ly host­ed at Earn­scliffe by the British High Com­mis­sion­er, Susan le Jeune d’Allegeershecque.

Churchill and the Perspective of History 144 Years On

Con­tin­ued from Part 1…. Do you want the good news or the bad news on Churchill today? The bad news is the high lev­el of igno­rance, as mea­sured by that elec­tron­ic Hyde Park Speaker’s Cor­ner, the Internet.

Churchill’s name elic­its 100 mil­lion Google hits, a col­league says, “Some are ques­tions, many of which sim­ply require the answer ‘No’—such as: ‘Was Churchill anti-Semit­ic?

Read More Read More

Churchill, Canada and the Perspective of History (Part 1)

Churchill, Canada and the Perspective of History (Part 1)

Address to the Sir Win­ston Churchill Soci­ety of Ottawa, Ontario, Cana­da, on Churchill’s 144th birth­day, 30 Novem­ber 2018 (Part 1). We were kind­ly host­ed at Earn­scliffe by the British High Com­mis­sion­er, Susan le Jeune d’Allegeershecque.

Churchill and Canada, 144 Years On

I thank Ron Cohen. And return his com­pli­ments. I thank him for his scholarship—especially his great Bib­li­og­ra­phy of the Writ­ings of Sir Win­ston Churchill, which is one of the eight or ten stan­dard works on Win­ston Churchill. And for his prowess as bag man, help­ing me emp­ty the book­shops of Hay-on-Wye, which he has just described to you.…

Read More Read More

Churchill’s “Visual Philosophy”: All the Curtis Hooper Prints

Churchill’s “Visual Philosophy”: All the Curtis Hooper Prints

Read­ers please note, Jason Hoop­er, the late Cur­tis Hooper’s son (see his note in com­ments below) is inter­est­ing in sell­ing some of his father’s fine pieces.  He asks me to pass this along to any­one who may be inter­est­ed. He may be reached by email: [email protected]. RML

Exhibited at Hillsdale College

In the 1970s, Sarah Churchill was involved in the com­mer­cial pub­li­ca­tion of a series of twen­ty-eight intaglio draw­ings by Cur­tis Hoop­er enti­tled, “A Visu­al Phi­los­o­phy of Sir Win­ston Churchill.”  The draw­ings were based upon famous Churchill pho­tographs and Sarah sup­plied suit­able quo­ta­tions for each.…

Read More Read More

RML Books

Richard Langworth’s Most Popular Books & eBooks

Links on this page may earn commissions.