“Buckley said, ‘it is the roar we hear when we hear his words.’ Past doubt. CHURCHILL DID NOT WIN THE WAR. His greatest achievement was that for eighteen months, when Britain and the Commonwealth stood alone, he didn’t lose it.” —RML
Churchill and Movie Mogul Alexander Korda, by John Fleet
John Fleet is a filmmaker who has produced an excellent documentary on Winston Churchill and Alexander Korda. Their collaboration in movie making, though not widely known, was substantial. A trailer for “Churchill and the Movie Mogul” may viewed online. For the full lecture, including Q&A—or the option of reading a transcript—click here.
A Treat Instead of a Treatment
We always begin watching any new film about Churchill with trepidation. After the skewed portraits in the television series The Crown, the fake history about postwar India in Viceroy’s House, and the absurdities of Churchill played by Brian Cox, we are fearful of having sit through another slapdash, ill-researched portrait.…
Above all and first, the importance of Henry V is what it teaches about leadership. “True leadership,” writes Andrew Roberts, “stirs us in a way that is deeply embedded in our genes and psyche.…If the underlying factors of leadership have remained the same for centuries, cannot these lessons be learned and applied in situations far removed from ancient times?”…
So they go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent. So we go on preparing more months and years—precious, perhaps vital, to the greatness of Britain—for the locusts to eat. —Churchill, House of Commons, 12 November 1936
Brexit Bedlam
For me the most adroit analysis of Britain’s Brexit Bedlam we can read to date was by Andrew Roberts in the Sunday Telegraph. You can register for free to read the article.
The two Churchills became aware of each other in 1900 when books by the English author began to appear alongside those of the already-well-established American. Indeed, so prominent was the American novelist at the time that English Winston wrote him a polite letter promising to use his middle name "Spencer" to distinguish himself from the far better-known American. The novelist replied that if he had a middle name he would have been pleased to return the compliment.
Mr. Emrys Hughes: “Owing to the popularity the Government has gained by the reduction of their salaries, is not the Prime Minister prepared to apply the principle to the big item of more than £500,000 spent on the Civil List?” Mr. Churchill replied “Dim o gwbl," meaning "At any time." Which was a nice Welsh way of saying "I'm really not going to tell you anything."
In 1927, Winston Churchill wrote to his wife Clementine, “I am becoming a film fan.” He had projection equipment installed at Chequers, the country home of British prime ministers, in 1943, and at his family home Chartwell in 1946. “Churchill and the Movies” is the fourth and final event of the Center for Constructive Alternatives in the 2018-19 academic year. We will view and discuss two films widely regarded as Churchill’s favorites, and two Churchill biographic movies in their historical context.
Hillsdale College has announced acquisition of an important part of the Ronald Cohen collection of the writings of Sir Winston Churchill. It numbers almost 2000 individual items. They comprise six categories: forewords, prefaces, and introductions by Churchill; periodical articles; works and periodicals containing Churchill speeches; letters, memoranda, statements and letters to the editor. Some 15% of these writings have not seen print since their original, limited editions, and therefore comprise a “submerged canon,” because they open a fresh field of Churchill scholarship.
Hillsdale College also has a temporary, exclusive purchase option for the balance of the collection, books written by Winston Churchill.…
Hillsdale College has acquired the world’s most comprehensive collection of Churchill recordings. Many are very rare because they reach back over a century.
The collection was generously donated by collector and bibliographer Ronald I. Cohen of Ottawa, Ontario. Among the 300 recordings are 100 speeches and 24 readings from Churchill’s war memoirs.
Hillsdale College has a long-standing commitment to leadership studies through The Churchill Project. We encourage scholarship in, and completion of, the remaining volumes of The Churchill Documents, a series in Churchill’s official biography. The final volume 23 arrives in 2019, and so completes a 31-volume epic Randolph Churchill began in 1962.…
…is the only Churchill quotations book with each entry referenced with a date and source. There’s even an appendix on incorrect quotations (called “Red Herrings”), stating why they are not Churchill’s. By Himself is also the only Churchill quote book that has undergone repeated reviews to produce a text as close to Churchill’s original words as possible. Fortunately, it’s been continuously in print for over ten years, making constant revision possible.
Just before the first publication in 2008, we found that a transcriber had made many errors in copying out quotations.…
Tonypandy, Wales is in the news again with fuzzy purveyors of history. On 13 February the Guardian headlined, “Winston Churchill was a villain, says John McDonnell.” (Mr. Donnell is Labour’s shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer in the House of Commons.)
“Villain — Tonypandy”
Mr. McDonnell’s swipe at Churchill was brief. Asked if he saw Churchill as a hero or villain, he replied: “Villain—Tonypandy.” The Guardian completed the drive-by assassination, not only by headlining the remark, but with an inaccurate rehash of the Tonypandy riots in 1910.
Sir Winston’s grandson, Sir Nicholas Soames, focused on McDonnell, calling him a “Poundland Lenin.”…
