“We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on typewriters will eventually produce THE ENTIRE WORKS OF SHAKESPEARE. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.” ―Robert Wilensky
Bud
Packard Tales and Memories of Bud Juneau

Packard Tales and Memories of Bud Juneau

What intrigued Bud was my idea to invigorate the club quarterly by recreating Packard's former house organ, The Packard Magazine, last published in 1931. We proposed using the same wide margins, elegant typefaces, art deco layouts and golden picture frame cover. With his keen imagination, Bud was my leading advocate, even when challenged about the cost. (Actually it cost no more per member, because membership increased and print costs held, since we kept almost every issue to 40 pages.)

Read More Read More

Press
Winston Churchill and the Art of the Press Conference

Winston Churchill and the Art of the Press Conference

Question on press conferences

I am  com­plet­ing an Eng­lish assign­ment which looks at the speech­es of Win­ston Churchill and would like to read press con­fer­ences or inter­views Churchill gave dur­ing the Sec­ond World War. So far, I have been able to find only speech­es. Please could you advise me whether any such inter­views are in exis­tence? —E.L.

Washington, 1941

Churchill rarely gave interviews—only two that I know of as a young man, and those reluc­tant­ly. Speech­es (live) were his pref­er­ence. How­ev­er, on his 1941 vis­it to Wash­ing­ton, Franklin Roo­sevelt ush­ered him into his first press con­fer­ence.…

Read More Read More

Thanksgiving
Winston Churchill on American Thanksgiving, 1944

Winston Churchill on American Thanksgiving, 1944

1621:

“Our har­vest being got­ten in, our gov­er­nor sent four men on fowl­ing, that so we might after have a spe­cial man­ner rejoice togeth­er after we had gath­ered the fruit of our labors…many of the Indi­ans com­ing amongst us, and among the rest their great­est King Mas­sas­oit, with some nine­ty men, whom for three days we enter­tained and feast­ed, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plan­ta­tion and bestowed on our gov­er­nor, and upon the cap­tain, and oth­ers.”  —Edward Winslow, Mourt’s Rela­tion: A Rela­tion or Jour­nal of the Begin­ning and Pro­ceed­ings of the Eng­lish Plan­ta­tion Set­tled at Plimoth in New Eng­land, 1621.…

Read More Read More

Duke
Troublesome Toffs: The Duke of Windsor and Bendor Westminster

Troublesome Toffs: The Duke of Windsor and Bendor Westminster

“A ful­ly equipped Duke costs as much to keep as two Dread­noughts; and Dukes are just as great a ter­ror and they last longer.”

The wise­crack, wrong­ly attrib­uted to Churchill, was actu­al­ly uttered by his Lib­er­al ally, David Lloyd George. (Alleged­ly LG said it in 1909, dur­ing their bat­tle to reform the House of Lords,) It didn’t make Churchill more wel­come at Blenheim Palace, where his cousin the Duke of Marl­bor­ough for­bade the name of LG in conversation.

The Duke of Wind­sor (for­mer­ly King Edward VIII) and the 2nd Duke of West­min­ster are occa­sion­al­ly attacked for their “near-trea­so­nous activ­i­ty in sup­port of the Third Reich.”…

Read More Read More

Guelzo
Guelzo on Robert E. Lee: “To Err on the Side of Absorbing Society’s Defaulters”

Guelzo on Robert E. Lee: “To Err on the Side of Absorbing Society’s Defaulters”

Allen C. Guel­zo, Robert E. Lee: A Life (New York: Knopf, 2021), 608 pages, illus., $35, Kin­dle $15.99. First pub­lished in The Amer­i­can Spec­ta­tor, 9 Novem­ber 2021.

“Who’s that man on the horse?”…

…I asked my father at a young age. “That’s Lee—he led a South­ern army in the Civ­il War.” He gave me a book I still have, Illus­trat­ed Minute Biogra­phies, by William DeWitt. Pub­lished 1953, it is utter­ly non-judg­men­tal. Oppo­site the page on Lee (“Leader of a Lost Cause”) is a page on Lenin (“Father of the Russ­ian Revolution.”)

Among DeWitt’s 150 per­son­al­i­ties, Lee fas­ci­nat­ed. I’ve always had a soft spot for under­dogs.…

Read More Read More

Monte Cassino
Churchill and the Destruction of Monte Cassino Abbey, 1944

Churchill and the Destruction of Monte Cassino Abbey, 1944

Cassino Abbey

An Ital­ian jour­nal­ist writes for Churchill ref­er­ences to the attacks on Monte Cassi­no dur­ing the Italy cam­paign in spring 1944, ask­ing about “his silence, lat­er con­tra­dic­to­ry” on the bomb­ing of the town’s ancient monastery. If the impli­ca­tion is that Churchill was uncar­ing over the destruc­tion of ancient shrines and grand build­ings, that would con­tra­dict his revul­sion over the bomb­ing of Dres­den. If it is that this par­tic­u­lar destruc­tion didn’t appear in his state­ments at the time, that is true. War is hell, and to expect him to eulo­gize every dev­as­tat­ing loss is to expect a lot.…

Read More Read More

Greeks
“Greeks Fight Like Heroes – Heroes Fight Like Greeks”: Not by Churchill

“Greeks Fight Like Heroes – Heroes Fight Like Greeks”: Not by Churchill

Q: Did Churchill say this about the Greeks? “Hence we will not say that Greeks fight like heroes, but that heroes fight like Greeks.” This quote is attrib­uted to Churchill and some­times accom­pa­nied by an audio clip which does not sound like him. My assump­tion is that he may have writ­ten it but the words were deliv­ered by some­one else. Is there any source of this quote or pos­si­ble mis­quote? It is used reg­u­lar­ly by the Greeks dur­ing Ohi Day cel­e­bra­tions.* It would be nice to find a source either way. —M.A.,…

Read More Read More

today
Churchill’s Legacy Today: Undented in the Digital Age

Churchill’s Legacy Today: Undented in the Digital Age

“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.”…

Read More Read More

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

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

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.”…

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.