Category: Reviews

Book, media, audio and video reviews by Richard M. Langworth

Roberts
Admiring but not uncritical, Roberts’ book is a masterpiece. To paraphrase Simon Schama, it is a Churchilliad, and Andrew Roberts is its Bard. (Cartoon by David Low on WSC’s 80th birthday.)
“No Cutlet Uncooked”: Andrew Roberts’ Superb Churchill Biography

“No Cutlet Uncooked”: Andrew Roberts’ Superb Churchill Biography

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Andrew Roberts, Churchill: Walk­ing with Des­tiny. New York, Viking, 2018, 1152 pages, $40, Ama­zon $25.47, Kin­dle $17.99. Also pub­lished by the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project. For Hills­dale reviews of Churchill works since 2014, click here. For a list of and notes on books about Churchill from 1905 cur­rent­ly through 1995, vis­it Hillsdale’s anno­tat­ed bibliography.

“No Cutlet Uncooked”

He lies at Bladon in Eng­lish earth, “which in his finest hour he held invi­o­late.” He would enjoy the con­tro­ver­sy he still stirs today, in media he nev­er dreamed of. He would rev­el in the assaults of his detrac­tors, the ripostes of his defend­ers.…

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Lough
“Jennie,” the TV series, with the magnificent and immortal Lee Remick in the title role, Ronald Pickup as Lord Randolph, Warren Clarke as Winston. The series is online. Part I is at: bit.ly/2OXdx9L
His Mother’s Son: “My Darling Winston,” David Lough, Ed.

His Mother’s Son: “My Darling Winston,” David Lough, Ed.

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David Lough, edi­tor, My Dar­ling Win­ston: The Let­ters Between Win­ston Churchill and His Moth­er. Lon­don: Pega­sus, 610 pages, $35, Ama­zon $33.25, Kin­dle $15.49. Reprint­ed from a review for the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project. For Hills­dale reviews of Churchill works since 2014, click here. For a list and syn­opses of books about Churchill since 1905, vis­it Hillsdale’s anno­tat­ed bibliography.

See also my trib­ute to Lee Remick as “Jen­nie.” and Part 1 of the film. 

David Lough…

…added sig­nif­i­cant­ly to our knowl­edge with No More Cham­pagne (2015), his study of Churchill’s finances. Now he fills anoth­er gap in the saga with this com­pre­hen­sive col­lec­tion of Churchill’s exchanges with his moth­er Jen­nie, Lady Ran­dolph Churchill.…

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Charmley
One of my favorites: Offered a light by a Frenchman at Cherbourg, 24 July 1944.
“Churchill: The End of Glory” by John Charmley

“Churchill: The End of Glory” by John Charmley

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Q: I have just been giv­en a copy of Churchill: The End of Glo­ry, A Polit­i­cal Biog­ra­phy by John Charm­ley (1993) and am oblig­ed to say that it has the most con­fused index I have ever come across.  It may be idle schol­ar­ship on my part but when I open a book that is new to me the first thing that I do is look through the index to see if it con­tains mat­ters that I con­sid­er it should and the next thing I check is the bib­li­og­ra­phy.  I looked for Sin­ga­pore and its British com­man­der, Lieu­tenant-Gen­er­al Arthur Ernest Per­ci­val but could not find any mentions. …

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Scott
“I asked him what he had thought during his celebrated cavalry charge at Omdurman, when the 21st Lancers had gone headlong into a gully filled with quite unexpected and extremely bad-tempered dervishes. He said, ‘It was very stimulating, but I did think, Suppose there is a spoil-sport in the hole with a machine gun?'” —Anthony Montague Browne. (I commissioned this fine painting by Ben Bradshaw, 1992; prints may still be available.)
“Churchill at the Gallop: Winston’s Life in the Saddle,” by Brough Scott

“Churchill at the Gallop: Winston’s Life in the Saddle,” by Brough Scott

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Brough Scott, Churchill at the Gal­lop. New­bury, Berk­shire: Rac­ing Post Books, 2018, 230 pages, $34.95, Ama­zon $25.77, Kin­dle $9.99. Reprint­ed from a review for the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project. For Hills­dale reviews of the hun­dred Churchill works pub­lished since 2014, click here. For a list and descrip­tion of books about Churchill since 1905, vis­it Hillsdale’s anno­tat­ed bibliography.

This book is both delight­ful and edu­ca­tion­al, a lux­u­ri­ous pro­duc­tion for a mod­est price. Print­ed on thick, coat­ed paper with many illus­tra­tions, it weighs over two pounds. The only tech­ni­cal com­plaint is that, with lots of white space avail­able, the type could be larger.…

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Rose
The greatest generation: Roger Miles marries Doris Clayton Greene, St. Peter’s Church, Vere Street, London, 8 January 1942. (Jill Rose)
“Every chance brought forth a noble knight”: Jill Rose, “Nursing Churchill”

“Every chance brought forth a noble knight”: Jill Rose, “Nursing Churchill”

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Jill Rose, Nurs­ing Churchill: A Wartime Life from the Pri­vate Let­ters of Win­ston Churchill’s Nurse.  Fore­word by Emma Soames. Stroud, Glouces­ter­shire: Amber­ley Pub­lish­ing, 2018, 286 pages, $27.95, Kin­dle $20.02. Reprint­ed from a review for the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project. For Hills­dale reviews of the hun­dred Churchill works pub­lished since 2014, click here. For a list and descrip­tion of books about Churchill since 1905, vis­it Hillsdale’s anno­tat­ed bibliography.

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Jill Rose…

…begins this fine World War II nar­ra­tive with a friend­ly warn­ing. Don’t wait till your par­ents are gone before pre­serv­ing their mem­o­ries. The par­ents of “baby boomers,” Rose writes, lived through the most momen­tous times of the 20th cen­tu­ry.…

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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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Krauthammer's
Publisher photo
Desert Island Books: Charles Krauthammer’s “Things that Matter”

Desert Island Books: Charles Krauthammer’s “Things that Matter”

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Charles Krauthammer’s Things That Mat­ter: Three Decades of Pas­sions, Pas­times and Pol­i­tics (388 pages, Crown Forum, 2013). In remem­ber­ing Dr. Krautham­mer, I said this book was one of a score I’d take with me if con­fined to a desert island. Here’s why. 

The read­er will ask: why am I plug­ging to a Churchill audi­ence a set of essays by a polit­i­cal colum­nist? Answer: because many are not polit­i­cal, yet reflect Churchillian thought. More­over, Dr. Krauthammer’s essay about Churchill is one of the best sum­maries of the man I’ve ever read. By any­body. Anywhere.

Sig­nif­i­cant­ly, in a book of over near­ly nine­ty columns and essays, the Churchill arti­cle ranks second—in Part I (enti­tled “Personal”)—after a piece on the author’s beloved broth­er, Mar­cel, who also died young after an hero­ic strug­gle.…

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music
Churchill’s daughter Lady Soames (green dress) at Harrow Songs. (Harrow School)
The Music Winston Churchill Loved (with audio links)

The Music Winston Churchill Loved (with audio links)

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Don Cusic, Win­ston Churchill’s Love of Music: Churchill Didn’t Have a Tin Ear (Nashville: Brack­ish Pub­lish­ing, 2018), 122 pages, $21. Audio links can eas­i­ly be pro­vid­ed online. Excerpt­ed from a review for the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project. For the full review, click here.

Music by Cusic

Cusic’s text traces Churchill’s life and career, track­ing every ref­er­ence the author found to music and song. We range from the march­es, dit­ties and Gilbert & Sul­li­van Churchill loved to the pow­er­ful­ly inspi­ra­tional. Which lyrics are pre­sent­ed is pure­ly arbi­trary, but once cho­sen, we get every word. Churchill’s youth­ful encoun­ters with the ’cel­lo and piano are duly not­ed.…

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Long
“Striped piglet historian” Andrew Roberts.
Long View: “Churchill’s Secret Affair,” Gary Oldman and the Oscars

Long View: “Churchill’s Secret Affair,” Gary Oldman and the Oscars

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Ms. Camil­la Long (“TV Review, Sun­day Times, March 11th)* has a way with words. Nev­er mind that some of them are so ultra-camp that she could be accused of gra­tu­itous­ly inflict­ing them on the rest of us pro­les with mal­nour­ished intellects.

“Hoorays,” “lilo,” “naff,” “pro­to-Wal­lis” and “pan­tomime horse-named” may be dai­ly ver­nac­u­lar in the rar­i­fied atmos­phere of the Sun­day Times Cul­ture Sec­tion. But they’re like­ly to con­fuse any­one who prefers com­mu­ni­ca­tion to obfus­ca­tion. How­ev­er, the Long View of my col­league Andrew Roberts as a “striped-piglet his­to­ri­an” makes me for­give her every­thing. I will dine out on that one many times, not least with the Striped Piglet himself.…

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Hour
The Prime Minister at work, with secretary Elizabeth Layton (who actually didn’t join Churchill until 1941, but is nicely played by Lily James). (Focus Features)
“Then out spake brave Horatius…” A Review of “Darkest Hour”

“Then out spake brave Horatius…” A Review of “Darkest Hour”

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After more than our share of historical clangers recently, Churchill admirers can welcome all this movie offers. Unlike any recent production, it genuinely honors the heroic memory. And that’s a special thing these days. Give Gary Oldman, the cast and producers a tip of the hat.

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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

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