Address to the Sir Winston Churchill Society of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, on Churchill’s 144th birthday, 30 November 2018 (Part 1). We were kindly hosted at Earnscliffe by the British High Commissioner, Susan le Jeune d’Allegeershecque.
Churchill and Canada, 144 Years On
I thank Ron Cohen. And return his compliments. I thank him for his scholarship—especially his great Bibliography of the Writings of Sir Winston Churchill, which is one of the eight or ten standard works on Winston Churchill. And for his prowess as bag man, helping me empty the bookshops of Hay-on-Wye, which he has just described to you.…
Red Herrings: Quotes not by Churchill (or things he said quoting someone else), continued from Part 3. Compiled for the next expanded edition of Churchill by Himself. Chapter references are to present editions of that book.
Earthy or sexist gags were not really Winston Churchill’s métier. His daughter Mary doubted an alleged crack to Bessie Braddock MP, who accused him of being drunk: “And you, my dear…are disgustingly ugly, but tomorrow I’ll be sober….” But I produced the Scotland Yard bodyguard who was standing next to him during the Braddock encounter.…
22 November 2018— A photographer friend sends along praise of Barry Goldwater (1909-1998). The Senator was noted portrayer of his beloved Southwest: “I am reading an issue of Arizona Highways devoted to his work. The only thing he was more passionate about than politics was his photography. And he was a great cameraman.” Praise of one photographer for another is high recommendation.
His note reminded me of People and Places, Goldwater’s fine book of photographs, from canyons to Hopi. The depth of feeling for Arizona’s native peoples and natural vistas in those photos belies the picture his enemies tried to paint of Goldwater when he ran for President in 1964.…
A reader suggests that these fake Churchill quotes be subdivided. We should separate quotes he actually said, but borrowed from someone else, from quotes simply invented out of whole cloth. Not sure we have much to learn from that. First, while I try to name the originator of a quotation not by Sir Winston, I don't always succeed. Second, my brief extends only to disproving that the words originated with Churchill.
Readers please note, Jason Hooper, the late Curtis Hooper’s son (see his note in comments below) is interesting in selling some of his father’s fine pieces. He asks me to pass this along to anyone who may be interested. He may be reached by email: [email protected]. RML
Exhibited at Hillsdale College
In the 1970s, Sarah Churchill was involved in the commercial publication of a series of twenty-eight intaglio drawings by Curtis Hooper entitled, “A Visual Philosophy of Sir Winston Churchill.” The drawings were based upon famous Churchill photographs and Sarah supplied suitable quotations for each.…
“Red Herrings”: Fake Churchill Quotes (or things he said quoting someone else), continued from Part 1.… Compiled for the next expanded edition of Churchill by Himself. Chapter references are to current editions of that book.
“If you’re going through hell, keep going” is the most common counterfeit. Heard by everyone from presidents to comics, it is sheer fantasy—Churchill wasn’t given to such redundancy. What’s your favorite among these Red Herrings? Mine is the one about golf, which I experienced personally before I wisely gave the game up.
Fanatic – France
Fanatic: A fanatic is someone who won’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.…
In 1686 the Oxford English Dictionary described “red herring,” a metaphor to draw pursuers off a track, as “the trailing or dragging of a dead Cat or Fox (and in case of necessity a Red-Herring) three or four miles…and then laying the Dogs on the scent…to attempt to divert attention from the real question.” I apply the term to quotes, allegedly by Churchill, which he never said—or if he did, was quoting somebody else.
Hence my Red Herrings Appendix, updated herewith, for the new, expanded edition of my quotes book Churchill by Himself.…
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.…
Biography update: The warm reactions received to this post prompted me to add the cartoon at the end. Thanks for the kind words. I am so pleased and proud to be associated with my Hillsdale colleagues in this grand enterprise. RML
“Give us the Tools….
Every student of Winston Churchill knows of Hillsdale College’s Churchill Project and the “official biography.” (The term is misleading, because nothing was ever censored.) Read more on this effort on the Project website
Sir Martin Gilbert completed the eighth and final biographic volume in 1988. But the accompanying volumes of documents (aka “Companion Volumes”) ceased in the 1990s.…
We are bowled over by the sheer volume of color, beauty and depth of photographs in the latest and greatest edition of Triumph Cars: The Complete Story. Largely this was the effort of my co-author Graham Robson, but I never expected such a high quality treatment by the publishers. A big, square format, 10×10 inches, it’s chock-a-block with lavish illustrations from the first spindly Triumph 10/20 of 1923 to the last, badge-engineered Triumph Acclaim of 1984. There are even appendices on Triumph-derived cars like the Bond Equipe, Amphicar, Peerless and Swallow Doretti.…
