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Bond
Bond’s Bentley Continental S2 by Mulliner: “a trim, rather square convertible with two large bucket seats. The rest was all knife-edged, rather ugly, trunk.” See below for the car’s recreation by Tony Hunter. (Illustration by Tom Rivel for the author, 1976)
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.”…

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Icon
Built in 1902, the Old War Office was central to Britain’s military planning in all the major conflicts of the 20th century, housing numerous Secretaries of State, including Sir Winston Churchill. (Photo by Allan House, Ministry of Defence, public domain)
Churchilliana: Return to Glory for an Icon or Two (Update)

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

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
For once not suffering from unpunctuality (and suitably impressing fellow passengers), WSC reads a newspaper on the platform while waiting for a train at St. Andrews during a trip to Scotland to visit Polish troops, inspect coastal defences and tour a Naval Establishment in Fife, 23 October 1940. (Imperial War Museum, public domain)
Unpunctuality: Churchill Tried and Repeatedly Failed to Cure Himself

Unpunctuality: Churchill Tried and Repeatedly Failed to Cure Himself

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
Churchill recalled that his “stroke of a pen” occurred in Jerusalem, which he, T.E. Lawrence and the Emir Abdullah visited together in March 1921. (Matson Collection, Library of Congress, Public Domain)
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

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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Many mansions
The Cairo Conference, November 1943: Chiang kai-Shek, Roosevelt, Churchill. (National Archives, public domain)
The Biblical Churchill (2): “A House of Many Mansions”

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

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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camps
Boer prisoners awaiting transportation to prison camps. Boers wore mufti, whether soldiers or not. (Imperial War Museum, public domain)
Selective Quotes: Churchill on South Africa Prison Camps

Selective Quotes: Churchill on South Africa Prison Camps

“Churchill on South Africa Prison Camps”: excerpt­ed from my essay for the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project. For the unabridged orig­i­nal, togeth­er with end­notes, and WSC’s com­plete let­ter to The Times, click here.

1. Same old, same old…

An Indi­an col­league writes:

I’ve noticed that the same accu­sa­tions about Churchill repeat­ed fre­quent­ly. Many writ­ers seem to recy­cle them on trust. Take for exam­ple a new anti-Churchill arti­cle which I think needs a thor­ough debunk­ing. In fair­ness to the author, it is not all bad; she con­cedes for instance that Churchill want­ed to use tear gas in Iraq, not poi­son gas.…

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generals
Western Desert, 23 August 1942: Middle East commander General Alexander, WSC and 8th Army commander Lt-General Montgomery. (Photo by Sgt. Martin, Imperial War Museum, public domain)
On Good News from Generals: Churchill’s Experience and Methods

On Good News from Generals: Churchill’s Experience and Methods

Say what?

A New York Times cor­re­spon­dent writes:

I’ve been read­ing The Best and the Bright­est by David Hal­ber­stam, about how we got into Viet­nam. When you’re decid­ing whether to inter­vene mil­i­tar­i­ly, he says, you can count on the gen­er­als to tell you every­thing that can go awry and stress the neg­a­tive part of the pic­ture. But once they’re invest­ed, once it’s their job to cre­ate a good out­come through mil­i­tary means, it’s going to be all hap­py talk. They’re not going to report that they’re fail­ing. They’re going to give you the sun­nier side of what’s hap­pen­ing, in this case, in Afghanistan.…

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consistency
Churchill and Chamberlain on 14 March 1935. (Wikimedia Commons)
Churchill’s Consistency: Politics Before Country (Part 2)

Churchill’s Consistency: Politics Before Country (Part 2)

Consistency in Politics…

…was a theme of Churchill’s, and he often wrote about it. He made many mis­takes, but through­out his career he was sel­dom guilty of lack­ing con­sis­ten­cy. Con­tin­ued from Part 1…

“Much better if he had never lived”

Churchill main­tained friend­ly rela­tions with Bald­win until Bald­win died in 1947. Nevertheless—which was rare for him—he nev­er for­gave and nev­er for­got. In June 1947 he made an aston­ish­ing state­ment: “I wish Stan­ley Bald­win no ill, but it would have been much bet­ter if he had nev­er lived.” Offi­cial biog­ra­ph­er Mar­tin Gilbert wrote that this was not Churchill’s usu­al con­sis­ten­cy, but exact­ly the opposite:

In my long search for Churchill few let­ters have struck a clear­er note than this one.…

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Robson
AAGR, himself.
Graham Robson: “He Was Always, Triumphantly, in Touch”

Graham Robson: “He Was Always, Triumphantly, in Touch”

Graham Robson shared and typified Alistair Cooke's philosophy—and mine. "We shall go on to the end," as Churchill said. And sure enough: Last April Graham wrote me about another book! It was his last message: I am commissioned to prepare a monumental four-part Encyclopedia of Classic Cars 1945-2000." In 2025 he would have been 89. Alas that task must now fall to someone else. But it was so very typical of Graham. He was forever pressing on, oblivious to time and age—on and on, as alive and vital as ever. As a BBC colleague said of Alistair Cooke: "He was always, triumphantly, in touch."

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