“Not a day passes when Winston Churchill, who proved indispensable WHEN LIBERTY HUNG IN THE BALANCE is not accused of something dreadful, from misogyny to warmongering. My book, Winston Churchill: Myth and Reality, confronts this busy industry.” —RML
today
Churchill’s Legacy Today: Undented in the Digital Age

Churchill’s Legacy Today: Undented in the Digital Age

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“This truth is incon­tro­vert­ible. Pan­ic may resent it, igno­rance may deride it, mal­ice may dis­tort it, but there it is.” —Win­ston S. Churchill, House of Com­mons, 17 May 1916

Q: His legacy today?

Peter Bak­er of The New York Times recent­ly reviewed a new book which deliv­ers some sharp arrows toward Win­ston Churchill and his lega­cy. Bak­er writes that the text labels Churchill  “not just a racist but a hyp­ocrite, a dis­sem­bler, a nar­cis­sist, an oppor­tunist, an impe­ri­al­ist, a drunk, a strate­gic bun­gler, a tax dodger, a neglect­ful father, a cred­it-hog­ging author, a ter­ri­ble judge of char­ac­ter and, most of all, a mas­ter­ful myth-mak­er.”…

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Bond
Sean Connery Remembered: James Bond and His Motorcars (Update)

Sean Connery Remembered: James Bond and His Motorcars (Update)

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Fifteen minutes to nine:

The Red Phone in the Bond flat gives its loud, dis­tinc­tive jan­gle. It’s the Chief of Staff. “At once, please, James. Spe­cial from ‘M.’ Some­thing for every­one. Crash dive and ultra hush. If you’ve got any dates for the next few weeks, bet­ter can­cel them. You’ll be off tonight.”

The archetypal, irreplaceable 007 In 2020 Sean Con­nery, the orig­i­nal James Bond, died at 90 at his home in Nas­sau. “He’s one of the few actors on the plan­et I tru­ly mourn,” a friend writes. “He was great man and dig­ni­fied, and stayed that way his whole life.”…

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Icon
Churchilliana: Return to Glory for an Icon or Two (Update)

Churchilliana: Return to Glory for an Icon or Two (Update)

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Icon of war: the old War Office, Whitehall

(Updat­ed from 2016). Home to Sec­re­taries of State for War Lord Hal­dane, Lord Kitch­en­er, David Lloyd George and Win­ston Churchill, it was a key venue in two glob­al con­flicts. But in 2016 the old War Office build­ing was sold to devel­op­ers of a five-star hotel and res­i­den­tial apart­ments. That work is expect­ed to fin­ish in 2022, and res­i­dents are being sought.

Built in 1906 for £1.2, mil­lion, the Grade II-list­ed prop­er­ty changed hands for £300 mil­lion. The buy­ers were the Hin­du­ja Group, in part­ner­ship with a Obras­con Huarte Lain Desar­rol­los (OHLD), a Span­ish indus­tri­al company.…

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unpunctuality
Unpunctuality: Churchill Tried and Repeatedly Failed to Cure Himself

Unpunctuality: Churchill Tried and Repeatedly Failed to Cure Himself

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Q: Unpunctuality

I have been told that Churchill arrived late for a meet­ing with HM The Queen, express­ing his regret by say­ing, “My sin­cere apolo­gies Madam, I start­ed too late.” But I haven’t found any ref­er­ence to this. Can you help? —A.P.H., England

A: His perennial vice

Churchill had some­what cured his unpunc­tu­al­i­ty in lat­er years, when as prime min­is­ter he com­mand­ed prompt trans­porta­tion. He was not known to be late for Queen Eliz­a­beth II. But his unpunc­tu­al­i­ty was known to have dis­pleased the  Prince of Wales, lat­er Edward VII (1901-10). And here is the source of your sto­ry.…

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stroke of a pen
Q&A: Churchill at the Stroke of a Pen: Jordan and the Indian Army

Q&A: Churchill at the Stroke of a Pen: Jordan and the Indian Army

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Excerpt­ed from “Cre­at­ing Jor­dan with the Stroke of a Pen on a Sun­day After­noon,” Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project, August 2021.

Q: On creating Transjordan

What is the verac­i­ty of this alleged quote by Churchill, which has many ver­sions? “In his lat­er years, he liked to boast that in 1921 he cre­at­ed Tran­sjor­dan (6/7ths of the British Pales­tine Man­date, today’s King­dom of Jor­dan, ‘with the stroke of a pen, one Sun­day after­noon in Cairo.’” The source cit­ed by The New York Times is “Bor­der­lines and Bor­der­lands: Polit­i­cal Odd­i­ties at the Edge of the Nation-State,” edit­ed by Alexan­der C.…

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Men of Valour
The Biblical Churchill (3) “Be Ye Men of Valour”

The Biblical Churchill (3) “Be Ye Men of Valour”

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N.B. “Be Ye Men of Val­our” is from the orig­i­nal Appen­dix IV in my book Churchill By Him­self. It was delet­ed in the lat­er edi­tion, Churchill in His Own Words, to make room for an index of phras­es. Con­clud­ed from Part 2…

From the Book of Maccabees

On 19 May 1940, Churchill made his first broad­cast as Prime Min­is­ter, a speech which lift­ed the hearts even of for­mer critics:

A tremen­dous bat­tle is rag­ing in France and Flan­ders. The Ger­mans, by a remark­able com­bi­na­tion of air bomb­ing and heav­i­ly armoured tanks, have bro­ken through the French defences north of the Mag­inot Line, and strong columns of their armoured vehi­cles are rav­aging the open coun­try, which for the first day or two was with­out defend­ers.…

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Many mansions
The Biblical Churchill (2): “A House of Many Mansions”

The Biblical Churchill (2): “A House of Many Mansions”

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N.B. “A House of Many Man­sions” is from the orig­i­nal Appen­dix IV in my book Churchill By Him­self. It was delet­ed in the lat­er edi­tion, Churchill in His Own Words, to make room for an index of phras­es. Con­tin­ued from Part 1…

“A house of many mansions”

The New Tes­ta­ment Gospel accord­ing to St. John, Chap­ter 14, con­tains an inspir­ing pas­sage that Win­ston Churchill absorbed as a boy:

1. Let not your heart be trou­bled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. 2. In my Father’s house are many man­sions; if it were not so, I would have told you.…

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biblical
The Biblical Churchill (1): His Largest Single Source of Quotations

The Biblical Churchill (1): His Largest Single Source of Quotations

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N.B.”The Bib­li­cal Churchill” was the orig­i­nal Appen­dix IV in my book Churchill By Him­self. It was delet­ed in the lat­er edi­tion, Churchill in His Own Words, to make room for an index of phrases.

Churchill’s Biblical storehouse

“In my Father’s house are many man­sions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to pre­pare a place for you.” —St. John 14:2 [1]

We have often said of our own British Empire: “In my Father’s house there are many man­sions.” So in this far greater world struc­ture, which we shall sure­ly raise out of the ruins of des­o­lat­ing war, there will be room for all gen­er­ous, free asso­ci­a­tions of a spe­cial char­ac­ter, so long as they are not dis­loy­al to the world cause nor seek to bar the for­ward march of mankind.…

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Mein Kampf
When Did Churchill Read “Mein Kampf”?

When Did Churchill Read “Mein Kampf”?

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Q: Mein Kampf

When did Churchill  first read Mein Kampf, and did he have any ear­ly reac­tion to it?” Of Mein Kampf in his war mem­oirs, he wroe:

…there was no book which deserved more care­ful study from the rulers, polit­i­cal and mil­i­tary, of the Allied Pow­ers. All was there—the pro­gramme of Ger­man res­ur­rec­tion, the tech­nique of par­ty pro­pa­gan­da; the plan for com­bat­ing Marx­ism; the con­cept of a Nation­al-Social­ist State; the right­ful posi­tion of Ger­many at the sum­mit of the world. Here was the new Koran of faith and war: turgid, ver­bose, shape­less, but preg­nant with its message.[1]…

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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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