Category: In the News

Orwell
Publicity photo for the CBS Studio One production of “1984,” 1953: L-R: scenic designer Kim Swados, Norma Crane, Eddie Albert, director Paul Nickell. (CBS, public domain)
Churchill, Orwell and “1984”

Churchill, Orwell and “1984”

Comments 0 Comments
Orwell on Churchill: "It is rumoured that after promising to fight in the streets he turned from the microphone and said: 'We'll throw bottles at the bastards; it's about all we've got left!' One may assume that this story is untrue, but at the time it was felt that it ought to be true. It was a fitting tribute from ordinary people to the tough and humorous old man whom they would not accept as a peacetime leader [in 1945] but whom in the moment of disaster they felt to be representative of themselves."

Read More Read More

Mincemeat
Operation Husky, The Sicily Landings 9-10 July 1943: signalling waiting landing craft by semaphore at dawn of the opening day. (Imperial War Museum, public domain)
Netflix on Operation Mincemeat: Did They Get It Right?

Netflix on Operation Mincemeat: Did They Get It Right?

Comments 3 Comments
Churchill believed Mincemeat had deceived Hitler, but he was always a fan of intelligence operations. Gilbert, Macintyre and Netflix say it did, and some German troops were sent to Greece. But German minefields and port defenses in Greece did not need resources from Sicily. Some motor torpedo boats were transferred, but they did not significantly weaken Sicily’s defenses.

Read More Read More

Boris
Whom will they announce in September? Boris Johnson in 2019, leaving for the Queen Elizabeth II Centre and the Conservative Party leadership announcement. (Steve Nimmons, Creative Commons)
Bring Boris Back? British Politicians, Churchillian Nicknames

Bring Boris Back? British Politicians, Churchillian Nicknames

Comments 0 Comments
British politicians have such wonderful names. If your own isn't fun enough, your fellow MPs may provide a more amusing one. In the postwar Labour government, Attorney General Sir Hartley Shawcross began sounding more and more Conservative. So his fellow MPs dubbed him Sir Shortly Floorcross....

Read More Read More

now
To understand Churchill is to appreciate his respect for political opposites, as in the coalition he put together in the interests of the nation. In “All Behind You, Winston” (1940), cartoonist David Low emphasized this by placing Labour grandees Attlee, Bevan and Morrison in the front row with WSC. (Wikimedia Commons, public domain)
Churchill Now: A Life Worth Contemplating in the Digital Age

Churchill Now: A Life Worth Contemplating in the Digital Age

Comments 0 Comments
Larry Arnn wrote: "Churchill's life is an object lesson in the art of statesmanship. Prudence, involving ‘calculating and ordering many things that shift and change,’ has from ancient times been held to be the defining virtue and art of the statesman.” Churchill's challenges were those of human nature and governance, relevant to his world and ours. “Churchill’s trial is also our trial.”

Read More Read More

Punch
“Mr. Churchill and Friend. ‘Winston: We have both made history and we have both written it. Let us exchange headgear.’” (Oversize collars and absurdly small hats were a feature of Churchill caricatures between the wars.) Cartoon by Leonard Raven-Hill, 14 February 1923. (From “Churchill in Punch”)
Echoes and Memories: Foreword to “Churchill in Punch” by Gary Stiles

Echoes and Memories: Foreword to “Churchill in Punch” by Gary Stiles

Comments 0 Comments
Gary Stiles's new book, "Churchill and Punch," captures their long relationship during an unprecedented career. The best artists of their time represented Punch’s often querulous, at times hilarious, sometimes wry, yet almost always respectful attitude toward Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill. In these pages, Gary Stiles and those artists renew those echoes and memories for future generations.

Read More Read More

Queen
The Queen and Prime Minister, with Prince Charles and Princess Anne, 10 February 1953. (Crown copyright expired, Wikimedia Commons)
The Queen 70 Years On: “A Sparkling Presence at its Summit”

The Queen 70 Years On: “A Sparkling Presence at its Summit”

Comments 0 Comments
"Our Island no longer holds the same authority or power that it did in the days of Queen Victoria. A vast world towers up around it and after all our victories we could not claim the rank we hold were it not for the respect for our character and good sense...and I regard it as the most direct mark of God's favour we have ever received in my long life that the whole structure of our new-formed Commonwealth has been linked and illuminated by a sparkling presence at its summit." —WSC, 1955

Read More Read More

voters
Broadcasting on VE Day, 8 May 1945. (War Office, public domain)
Churchill on Representative Government, and the Voters It Represents

Churchill on Representative Government, and the Voters It Represents

Comments 0 Comments
"I see the [Parliament] a living and ruling entity; the swift vehicle of public opinion; the arena—perhaps fortunately the padded arena—of the inevitable class and social conflict; the College from which the Ministers of State are chosen, and hitherto the solid and unfailing foundation of the executive power."

Read More Read More

National Debt
Budget Day, 15 April 1929. The Chancellor of the Exchequer en route Parliament to present his fifth budget. His task: to reduce the £8 billion National Debt. L-R: Detective Walter Thompson; Parliamentary Private Secretary Bob Boothby; Winston, Clementine, Sarah and Randolph Churchill. (Crown copyright expired, public domain)
Churchill on the Annual Crisis of the National Debt

Churchill on the Annual Crisis of the National Debt

Comments 1 Comment
"There are two ways in which a gigantic debt may be spread over new decades and future generations. There is the right and healthy way; and there is the wrong and morbid way. The wrong way is to fail to make the utmost provision for amortisation which prudence allows, to aggravate the burden of the debts by fresh borrowings, to live from hand to mouth and from year to year, and to exclaim with Louis XV: 'After me, the deluge!'” —WSC, 1927

Read More Read More

Wolseley
“You can come back up now—we’ve parked.” Churchill with his third Wolseley, a 1925 Model 11/22 two-seat deluxe tourer (serial no. 45126), owned 1925-26. (Hillsdale College Press)
Driving Miss Nancy: Churchill, Wolseley and Lady Astor

Driving Miss Nancy: Churchill, Wolseley and Lady Astor

Comments 0 Comments
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.”

Read More Read More

Baldwin
Churchill and his wife (right) dedicating the Baldwin Memorial marker at Astley, Worcestershire, 20 May 1950. At left is Baldwin’s son Oliver and an unidentified woman, who might be one of Baldwin’s daughters. (Astley and Dunley Parish Council)
Churchill’s Magnanimity: Stanley Baldwin (1867-1947)

Churchill’s Magnanimity: Stanley Baldwin (1867-1947)

Comments 2 Comments

Churchill’s cen­so­ri­ous remark about Prime Min­is­ter Stan­ley Bald­win was not, I was pleased to learn, his last words. Once again his char­ac­ter­is­tic mag­na­nim­i­ty pre­vailed. My thanks to my col­league Dave Tur­rell for this information.

June, 1947

Sir Mar­tin Gilbert pub­lished the arrest­ing asser­tion by Churchill in 1947 (In Search of Churchill, 1995, 106). In June, WSC was invit­ed to send a let­ter (I would think for a festschrift) on Baldwin’s 80th birth­day, August 3rd. Writ­ing to an inter­me­di­ary, Churchill refused. “I wish Stan­ley Bald­win no ill, but it would have been much bet­ter if he had nev­er lived.”…

Read More Read More

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
Links on this page may earn commissions.