Category: Literary

Romeo and Juliet
Production of the play “Romeo and Juliet” with Jane Cowl as Juliet and the cowering Nurse at right, 1923. (White Studio, public domain)
Churchill’s Shakespeare: Quoting “Romeo and Juliet”

Churchill’s Shakespeare: Quoting “Romeo and Juliet”

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Darrell Holley offers one citation from "Romeo and Juliet." In his biography of his father, Lord Randolph Churchill, Sir Winston writes: “Would he, under the many riddles the future had reserved for such as he, snapped the tie of sentiment that bound him to his party, resolved at last to ‘shake the yoke of inauspicious stars’….?” As so often in that better-read age, Churchill didn’t bother to cite the source, assuming most of his readers would know the source.

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Thucydides
The History of the Peloponnesian War, translated from Thucydides, by William Smith, Rector of Holy Trinity, Chester, and Chaplain to The Earl of Derby. London: John Watts, 1753. (Wikimedia Commons)
Winston Churchill and Thucydides

Winston Churchill and Thucydides

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"Open no more negotiations with Sparta. Show them plainly that you are not crushed by your present afflictions. They who face calamity without wincing, and who offer the most energetic resistance, these, be they States or individuals, are the truest heroes." —Lord Beaverbrook's advice to Churchill, quoting Thucydides, 1942.

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Stories
“Eliza warned Uncle Tom of his peril, and, seizing her child, plunged out into the night.” —Churchill retelling “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” (Lithograph from the 1852 first edition, public domain)
“The World’s Great Stories” Retold by Winston Churchill

“The World’s Great Stories” Retold by Winston Churchill

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Why would Churchill wish to retell such classics as "Uncle Tom’s Cabin," "The Count of Monte Cristo," "Don Quixote," or "A Tale of Two Cities"? Because he was paid well to do so. Never independently wealthy, he worked hard to maintain his luxurious lifestyle—and the heavy entertainment and travel overhead of an active political career. “I earned my livelihood by dictating articles which had a wide circulation not only in Great Britain and the United States,” he wrote, “but also, before Hitler's shadow fell upon them, in the most famous newspapers of 16 European countries. I lived in fact from mouth to hand.”

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Kilkenny
“They raised such a gust, Of yowls growls smoke and dust….” The Kilkenny cats in the middle of their fight, from the mock heroic poem by Alexander Mack, 1824. (Illustration by David Claypoole Johnston, Wikimedia Commons)
Churchill. the Kilkenny Cats, and the U.S. Congress

Churchill. the Kilkenny Cats, and the U.S. Congress

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"Indeed, the more we force ourselves to picture the hideous course of a modern naval engagement, the more one is inclined to believe that it will resemble the contest between Mamilius and Herminius at the Battle of Lake Regillus, or the still more homely conflict of the Kilkenny cats." —Churchill, 1912

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World Crisis
Churchill around the time of writing “The World Crisis.” (Painting by James Guthrie, Scottish National Gallery, public domain)
Hillsdale Dialogues Explore Churchill’s “The World Crisis”

Hillsdale Dialogues Explore Churchill’s “The World Crisis”

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"It was the custom in the palmy days of Queen Victoria for statesmen to expatiate upon the glories of the British Empire, and to rejoice in that protecting Providence which had preserved us through so many dangers and brought us at length into a secure and prosperous age. Little did they know that the worst perils had still to be encountered and that the greatest triumphs were yet to be won…."

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novels
Among Churchill’s favorites: Rod Taylor fends off the Morlocks in the MGM film version of “The Time Machine.” (Artwork by Reynold Brown, Wikimedia Commons)
Churchill’s Novels: Escape Valves or Reality Checks?

Churchill’s Novels: Escape Valves or Reality Checks?

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Churchill was motivated by Wells’s views of military science: “The irresistible Juggernaut, driving through towns and villages as through a field of standing corn—a type which Armageddon itself could not achieve….” That was an accurate description of France in 1940. Churchill himself called it “a remarkable combination of air bombing and heavily armoured tanks.” He then admonished Britons: “Arm yourselves, and be ye men of valour."

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Rhodes James
Sir Robert Rhodes James saw 1939 as the year that ended Churchill’s “Study in Failure” and heralded his sequel, “A Study in Success.” On 5 November 1939 near Avesnes, France, WSC meets British Expeditionary Force Commander Field Marshal John Gort. Lt.-Gen. Henry Pownall, Chief of Staff, who would later assist WSC in writing his war memoirs, is at right. (Imperial War Museum, public domain)
“A Good House of Commons Man”: Robert Rhodes James

“A Good House of Commons Man”: Robert Rhodes James

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Randolph Churchill had sacked Robert from his research team on the Official Biograhy, and Robert never forgave him (or his dislike of Eden). He maintained that Randolph just repeated the “case for the defence” Sir Winston had already made in his own books. Robert always said exactly what he believed—in the most forceful terms available to a gentleman. In an age of prevaricating phonies of Left and Right, such a character is rare. Winston Churchill would have loved him.

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Memoirs
An immaculate set of the true first edition, by Houghton Mifflin, Boston. WSC, insisting that the UK edition be definitive, held up British proofs with last-minute corrections, allowing the Americans into print first—much to the discomfort of Cassell in London. (Photo courtesy Marc Kuritz, churchillbookcollector.com)
Churchill’s War Memoirs: Aside from the Story, Simply Great Writing

Churchill’s War Memoirs: Aside from the Story, Simply Great Writing

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"No other wartime leader in history has given us a work of two million words written only a few years after the events and filled with messages among world potentates which had so recently been heated and secret. The Memoirs are not just a unique revelation of the exercise of power from atop an empire in duress but also one of the fascinating products of the human spirit, both as an expression of a personality and as a somewhat anomalous epic tale filled with the depravities, miseries and glories of man." —Manfred Weidhorn

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Garibaldi
Meeting between Garibaldi and King Victor Emmanuel II on the bridge of Teano, 26 October, painting by Pietro Aldi, 1860. Sala del Risorgimento, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena. (Public domain)
Winston Churchill on Giuseppi Garibaldi

Winston Churchill on Giuseppi Garibaldi

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Churchill had profound respect for the Italian 19th century democratic revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi, and once hoped to write his biography. But it is unlikely that his famous lines, "blood, toil, tears and sweat" were adapted by something Garibaldi said—they date back quite a bit farther.

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Essays
Unique and unprecedented, the Collected Essays were a crucial addition to the published canon. Shown are the two original bindings: Centenary Limited Edition (vellum, left) and the Centenary Edition in navy quarter-morocco. (Photos: Mark Weber & Chartwell Booksellers)
Churchill’s Collected Essays, Invaluably Compiled by Michael Wolff

Churchill’s Collected Essays, Invaluably Compiled by Michael Wolff

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Michael Wolff's task as editor was to compile Churchill's periodical writings not already in the Collected Works. The result was four satisfying volumes that would then have cost a fortune to acquire in original form, assuming one could even locate them. Many periodicals were obscure, quickly read and discarded, their contents forgotten. Thus the unique value of the Collected Essays.

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RML Books

Richard Langworth’s Most Popular Books & eBooks


Winston Churchill, Myth and Reality

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