Introduction

In 2018, Andrew Roberts wrote in Churchill: Walking with Destiny, works about Sir Winston Churchill topped 1000. This catalogue piles on, listing more than 1100, nearly 900 of which we have annotated. Winston Churchill was the subject of his first biography in 1905 when he was 30 years old. The flow hasn’t stopped. Here in the 21st century, 100 years later, some years see over 20 new Churchill titles.

The word “works” denotes any item individually published, from brief pamphlets to books large and small. Compiling and describing them is the purpose of this online listing, which will be updated seriatim. I hope it will serve as a living guide to the vast literature on the Greatest Briton.

Credits

This catalogue would not exist without the efforts of two bibliographic pioneers, H. Ashley Redburn (1914-1996) and Curt J. Zoller (1920-2014). They worked separately, and then together, updating their findings through the Churchill Societies. Curt also co-authored (with Michael McMenamin) Becoming Winston Churchill: The Untold Story of Winston and his American Mentor. Ashley’s work abides, not least with the Hillsdale College Churchill Project. See “Remembering Richard Haking: The General Who Saved Churchill’s Life.”

Curt Zoller’s Annotated Bibliography of Works about Sir Winston S. Churchill (M.E. Sharpe, 2004) contains the full publishing history of works through that date. It also offers several additional lists not covered here: books and articles “substantially about” Churchill (e.g., the Alanbrooke Diaries); reviews of Churchill’s own works; dissertations and theses. His book remains available, and is the best source for this data.

Nomenclature

For books with contributions, all contributors are identified, although their full titles may be edited for space. The word “Reprints” means only that a work was reprinted, hardbound or softbound. Consult the Zoller Bibliography for complete publishing histories. The word “e-book” indicates either a Kindle or other electronic edition.

Annotations (✸) and Acknowledgements

Annotations were written only for books personally examined. Through 2004, all save a handful (bylined) were written by me for Zoller Section A: “Works Entirely about Winston S. Churchill.” From 2005 on, bylines are supplied, most frequently: Antoine Capet (AC), Paul H. Courtenay (PHC), Michael McMenamin (McM), William John Shepherd (WJS) and myself (RML). Other bylines are spelled out. Links to reviews are provided for Hillsdale and other publications with which the writers are connected.

The efforts and assistance of many contributors were profound. I am particularly grateful to Antoine Capet, Dave Turrell, Soren Geiger, and the Hillsdale College Churchill Fellows for kind assistance and corrections. Professor James Muller, University of Alaska, Anchorage, valuably proofread and made numerous corrections. The remaining errors are all mine. —Richard M. Langworth

How to search the list.

Click here. Please do not attempt to find items by scrolling. Instead, use the search box on your browser. On Macs, click “Apple-f.” A box will appear where you can enter an author, title, date or topic. PCs offer similar browser searches.

Sample entries from first to last

1905

Scott, A. MacCallum. Winston Spencer Churchill. London: Methuen, 1905, 270 pp. ✸ The first biography, written by an admirer when Churchill was only 31. Though untainted by knowledge of future greatness, the author wrote favorably about young Winston and predicted that he would eventually become prime minister.

1928

Sydenham of Combe, Col. The Lord, et al. ‘The World Crisis’ by Winston Churchill: A Criticism. London: Hutchinson, 192 pp., 1928. Reprints. ✸ A critique of Churchill’s The World Crisis, vol. 3, 1916-1918. Contributors also consider the Dardanelles campaign in Churchill’s vol. 2. An important critical work, sufficiently powerful that Churchill replied to it in part in his 1931 abridged edition of The World Crisis. Contributors: Admiral Sir R. Bacon: “Mr. Churchill and Jutland.” Major-General Sir W.D. Bird: “Mr. Churchill’s Opinions: Some Other Points of View.” Major-General Sir F. Maurice: “Joffre, Galliéni and the Marne.” Sir Charles Oman: “The German Losses on the Somme.” Lord Sydenham of Combe: “Mr. Churchill as Historian.”

1942

Unknown. Winston Churchill: Mein Bundesgenosse. Aussprüche aus zwei Jahrzehnten [Winston Churchill: My Ally. Sayings of Two Decades]. Berlin: Nibelungen Verlag, 1942, 110 pp., softbound, text in German; several translations, including Mon Allié Staline in French. ✸ Forward by “Victor” [Arnold Littmann]. German propaganda, quoting Churchill’s anti-Bolshevik writings from pre-World War II years, with reproductions of political cartoons, which offer many a ripe irony indeed. The “Ally” was Stalin.

1947

Coote, Colin R. and Batchelor, Denzil, eds. Maxims and Reflections of the Rt. Hon. Winston S. Churchill. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1947, 176 pp. Reprints through 1992. ✸ The first book of Churchill quotations, and still a model of the genre. Coote, a friend of Churchill’s with a long tenure at London’s Daily Telegraph, diligently sought the most interesting expressions from Churchill’s speeches and writings, verifying his citations, arranging them by general categories and adding accompanying notes. And so this became an authoritative source, a first.

1952

Taylor, Robert Lewis. Winston Churchill: An Informal Study of Greatness. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1952, 434 pp. Reprints through 1961. Retitled The Amazing Mr. Churchill, 1962. Translations: German, Hebrew, Norwegian, Spanish, Swedish. ✸ Outwardly bearing every sign of a postwar potboiler, this is actually a scholarly anecdotal biography in which Taylor found and quoted people who knew Churchill as far back as the Boer War. Though hampered by the lack of footnotes, index and bibliography, it offers many unique sources.

1955

Urquhart, Fred, compiler. WSC: A Cartoon Biography. London: Cassell, 1955, 242 pp. ✸ Published to mark Churchill’s 80th birthday, this is still a standard work on Churchill political cartoons. Sources run from Nazi to Tory, Liberal to Bolshevik, tracing Churchill’s entire career from youthful war correspondent to postwar Prime Minister. Explanatory notes by the editor place each illustration in context and credit the artist and publication.

1963

Thompson, R.W. The Yankee Marlborough. London: George Allen and Unwin; Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1963, 364 pp. Translations: French. ✸ A critique perhaps overly based on recollections of Churchill’s rueful ex-friend Desmond Morton, who was dropped by WSC and never got over it. Thompson contends that WSC’s American blood gave him energy, his British blood romance, but Kirkus Reviews dissented: “That Churchill is egocentric is not a new charge, but that his was a narcissism so complete that the only person capable of interrupting his self-adoration was his Nanny is a charge repeated and examined at ridiculous length.”

1966

The Official Biography

At over twenty million words in thirty-one volumes, recently completed by Hillsdale College Press, this is the longest biography in history. For clarity and simplicity, we list first the eight narrative volumes, followed by their supporting document volumes. The term “official” does not mean that the authors were obliged to take an authorized line or avoid certain subjects, because they never were. To order copies, click here.

The Narrative Volumes

Churchill, Randolph S. Winston S. Churchill, vol. 1: Youth 1874-1900. London: Heinemann; Boston: Houghton Mifflin (also published by Houghton Mifflin for the Literary Guild), 1966. Hillsdale, Mich.: Hillsdale College Press, 2006. 608 pp. ✸ Based on thousands of papers in the Churchill Archives and other sources, Randolph Churchill’s work was received with general praise. Generally positive, though not without criticism, it reflects the theme of the work, “He shall be his own biographer,” but Randolph added his own literary style.

The Document Volumes

Gilbert, Martin and Arnn, Larry P., eds. The Churchill Documents, Vol. 23, Never Flinch, Never Weary, October 1951-January 1965. Hillsdale, Mich., Hillsdale College Press, 2019, 2488 pp. ✸ Reviewed by Hillsdale: This final volume covers the advent of the Cold War, Britain’s relations with the United States and Europe, the maintenance and dissolution of Empire. Many documents deal with domestic issues and so with Britain’s economic predicament. The issues of state he dealt with as prime minister frequently intersected with Churchill’s huge social network and private life. Unique among his contemporaries, his politics, economics, social and private life greatly overlapped, so they are not easily separated. Never Flinch, Never Weary bears testimony to Churchill’s fertile mind, social inclinations and action-driven personality. —Klaus Larres

1983

Manchester, William. The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, vol. 1: Visions of Glory 1874-1932. Boston and Toronto: Little Brown, 1983, 974 pp. Churchill: The Last Lion. London: Michael Joseph. Translations: Italian, French. Many editions since. ✸ Manchester’s lyrical biography makes for fabulous reading; the prologue accurately captures the vanished world into which Churchill was born better than any other work. Given short shrift by academics, the author was accused of hagiography (though he is sometimes quite critical), purple prose and mistakes large and small. Manchester has nonetheless brought more people to Churchill than any writer save Martin Gilbert.

1994

Gilbert, Martin. In Search of Churchill: A Historian’s Journey. London: HarperCollins, 338 pp. New York: John Wiley, 1994, 416 pp. Reprints, e-book. ✸ The official biographer’s fascinating adventures and interviews in the process of compiling the official biography. This is also Gilbert’s answer to critics over the years who accused him of being uncritical about a man others have spent years denouncing. Having examined more evidence than anyone in writing the official biography, Gilbert states that he came away even more impressed with Churchill’s intellect, generosity, statesmanship and humanity. Cited by many as the best Churchill book of 1994, and especially useful to the scholar interested in primary source material.

2006

Cohen, Ronald I. Bibliography of the Writings of Sir Winston Churchill. London: Thoemmes; New York: Continuum, 3 vols., 2006, 2184 pp. ✸ The product of thirty years’ research and collecting, this is the ultimate and ever-standard bibliography of Churchill’s writings, encompassing Churchill’s published books, pamphlets, leaflets, contributions, articles, speeches, letters, memoranda and statements, together with the circumstances of publication. Its publication put all previous attempts at bibliography in the shade, and it will forever be consulted as the “last word.” —RML

2010

Leaming, Barbara. Churchill Defiant: Fighting On: 1945-1955. New York: HarperCollins, 2010, 368 pp. Reprints, e-book. ✸ The personal dimension helps make this the most important survey of Churchill’s last active decade. Valuable to those new to Churchill because of its keen insight into his lifelong defiance of long odds and formidable adversaries. No footnotes and lots of speech paraphrasing allow Leaming to get to the kernel of WSC in those years, and so to his final goal, peace. —RML

2015

Arnn, Larry P. Churchill’s Trial: Winston Churchill and the Survival of Free Government. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2015, 240 pp. Reprints, e-book. ✸ Reviewed by Hillsdale: Churchill studies can reveal important lessons that remain powerfully relevant for the leaders and citizens of free societies. This notion is itself founded on the belief that though the threats to civilization may have altered since Churchill’s day, there is consistency between his challenges and ours—that he is a good guide to follow in the cause of defending freedom. So such a belief must lie behind any conception of history as providing guidance. If these commonalities do not exist, neither Churchill’s story, nor history in general, has anything to say to us now. A unique and important work on Churchill’s political thought. —Justin D. Lyons

2018

Roberts, Andrew. Churchill: Walking with Destiny. London: Allen Lane; New York: Viking, 2018, 1152 pp. Reprints, softbound, e-book. ✸ Reviewed by Hillsdale; for a second Hillsdale review click here): What can justify another big biography? New sources, for one thing. But the real justification is that this book is excellent—the best biography since Sir Martin Gilbert’s Churchill: A Life (1991). It has the adventure, energy, and incessant movement that Churchill produced. It is witty, fluent, and precise, in rhythm with the material. We gallop across decades and through the largest episodes in history. It is devoid of the smug second guessing that we all may commit. It is the product of a massive and faithful labor. Roberts tells the story of a wonderful life with accuracy and dash, with richness and comprehension. It raises all the questions and provides the material for their contemplation. —Larry P. Arnn

2020

Vale, J. Allister and Scadding, John W. Winston Churchill’s Illnesses 1886-1965. Barnsley, Yorks.: Frontline, 2020, 522 pp. ✸ Reviewed by Hillsdale: A thoroughgoing forensic examination of Churchill’s maladies from boyhood to old age. As a result we have the standard work in this field. Combines professional commentary with layman’s terms, so no reader will be lost in medical technology. Also provides names of diseases and drugs as well as people and places, and the images include many physicians mentioned. No serious Churchill scholar will now be able routinely to quote Lord Moran (1966) without acknowledging the decisive caveats introduced by this new work. —Antoine Capet

Ashley Redburn, Anglo-American

Cynics sometimes suggest that Western Civilization needs a war every few generations to maintain its sense of values and faith in itself. Ashley Redburn was a man who believed it. “England,” he declared grimly, “needs to be conquered in war and occupied by a vengeful enemy before its spirit can be revived. Germany and France between them have ruined Europe for two centuries. They are now ganging up to subjugate the continent. [Britain had just signed the Maastricht Treaty.] Perhaps it doesn’t matter. Somewhere in the universe there must be other beings who are making a better test of things than the inhabitants of this planet. You and I will never know, but two generations hence, they may.”

Winston Churchill was an honorary American citizen. Ashley Redburn would resist the comparison, but he in his own way also deserved that honor. A friend, goes the saying, is someone who knows all about you but likes you. Ashley knew all about Americans, and liked them despite what he knew. There was never in Ashley a hint of that odd combination of envy and scorn displayed toward Americans by certain foreigners, some closer than England. Equally there was no hint of the overbearing way some Americans treat foreigners.

* * *

Mark Twain introduced the Anglo-American Churchill to a New York audience in 1901: “Mr Churchill by his father is an Englishman, by his mother he is an American, no doubt a blend that makes the perfect man. England and America, we are kin. And now that we are also kin in sin, there is nothing more to be desired. The harmony is perfect, like Mr. Churchill himself, whom I now have the honour to present to you.” Redburn knew all about “kin in sin” of the two fraternal nations. Representing anything less than his frank views, which were not optimistic, would be disrespectful to his memory.

Ashley maintained that nowadays “the bulk of the best work on the study of Churchill is being done by American academics.” Citing such exceptions as Sir Martin Gilbert, Paul Addison, David Stafford, Andrew Roberts and a few others, he believed there is “not much zeal in respect of Winston in British universities.” (I think he missed David Reynolds, John Ramsden, R.A.C. and others back then.)

“The unctuous rectitude of my countrymen”

Ashley wished age didn’t keep him from attending Churchill events. Yet he reacted to them as if he had been there. In 1996, the 50th Anniversary  of Churchill’s “Sinews of Peace” speech was celebrated in Fulton, Missouri. Its keynote speaker was Margaret Thatcher. “I am glad Lady Thatcher took the opportunity to emphasize the importance and prescience of Fulton,” he wrote. “She was the one to do it. I cringe over today’s leaders. As I told our local MP, the Conservative Party should reflect that their fortunes have been in steady decline since they sacked her. ‘England hath need of thee,’ Wordsworth wrote of Milton.

“Charles De Gaulle observed that politics is too important to be entrusted to politicians. They seldom understand human nature and will not admit that mankind is incapable of natural goodness. The almost universal exhibition of envy and covetousness, assiduously cultivated by the media, is sickening.” Hmm. He said that twenty-five years ago.

In 1996 a furor arose over the purchase of the Churchill Papers with National Lottery money. The Independent said the purchase was “vital.” They should have editorialized with Ashley Redburn’s reaction:

I followed with interest the outraged howls. The smell of money, particularly other people’s money, drives many English people mad. It deprives them of rational discernment. I am reminded of the comment of Cecil Rhodes on arriving in London for the enquiry on the Jameson Raid. Knowing he would have been lionized had the Raid succeeded, he found himself execrated because it had failed. In answer to a reporter’s question he referred to “the unctuous rectitude of my countrymen.” The reporter asked, “Don’t you mean anxious?” Rhodes replied, “No, I said unctuous and I mean unctuous..” The comment is apposite regarding the Churchill Papers affair.

Harsh judgements

Redburn looked upon America and Britain as a dispassionate observer—perhaps “mourner” would be a better word. He deplored what he viewed as a relentless slide toward mediocrity, the ebbing of individual liberty and responsibility, the rise of all-permeating Statism and a vague, unsatisfying, unequal egalitarianism:

Our two countries sometimes remind me of third world states, ours more often. The Second World War impoverished us, and our poverty in 1945 was compounded by the advent of socialism. Imperial Britain is defunct, America may follow suit. I have lived the greater part of this century of decline. Will our offspring fare any better?

Nothing upset him more than the problems of the Royal Family: “The monarchy will survive in spite of calls for a republic, particularly from some in the Labour Party. But it angers me that the family of the best monarch we have had for centuries should have so diminished the monarchy itself.”

Occasionally he suggested panaceas: “I hope the West will find wisdom and take up the challenge of the Pacific Rim. There lies our joint future—an economic bloc of the English-Speaking Peoples, including India and the rest of the Commonwealth. A super-economic combine. The USA and Britain are dissipating their seed corn of capital in bolstering worthless regimes and are in danger of impoverishing their next generations. Small wonder that many of my generation feel life has been in vain.”  A harsh judge indeed, but he was qualified to be one.

War and remembrance

Born in Leicestershire in 1912, Redburn studied history at Nottingham University and taught it in South Africa and England. In 1936 he joined the Territorial Army (reserves). Three years later he met General Sir Richard Haking, who inadvertently saved Winston Churchill’s life in 1916. Alas, he did not know of Haking’s role until he read Martin Gilbert’s official biography. His story is published by the Hillsdale College Churchill Project.

He landed on Sword Beach in the vanguard of the Normandy invasion on D-Day. In November 1944 he joined the mopping up forces in Burma. Mentioned in despatches, he was demobilized in December 1945 with the rank of Lt. Col, the OBE (Military) and the Territorial Decoration. From 1949 to his retirement in 1972 he was Director of Education in Bamsley, South Yorkshire.

I met Ashley around the time of his retirement, when he began seriously to get busy. A mutual friend often mentioned this fascinating scholar, and the novelty that he then lived in Rutland, Britain’s smallest county. Ashley became one of my senior editors, which is what we called people who were indispensable. He wrote the most wonderful book reviews—erudite, polished, witty and wise, studded with priceless quotes from the classics. But they were increasingly hard to get because of his workload. Like Churchill, the idea of retiring appalled him.

Winding up

His last two book reviews were of Long Sunset by Churchill’s last private secretary, Anthony Montague Browne; and a critical work on the Anglo-American alliance. He acceded to the first out of admiration for the author, to the second because he felt sorry for the author. “Such an excitable young man, still at heart an undergraduate. I shall have to be very careful to put down my inner prejudices.” But these would have to be his last:

By the end of 1996 I shall have finished all Churchill study. Then I will concentrate on my own reading—literature chiefly, and the Greek and Roman authors (not in the original!). Greek civilisation fascinates me: If denied in this life I hope to become proficient in it in the next. I often think Churchill would have become a great Greek scholar in other circumstances.

Now that he has got to Heaven, Ashley will certainly spend a considerable portion of his first million years studying Greek civilization, and so get to the bottom of the subject.

* * *

I never knew Ashley Redburn to have a healthy year, and he often reminded me he would not be around forever. We presented him with a literary award, and arranged to deliver it to his home. We made a small delegation and visited  Ashley and Margaret for tea. “It was such a happy day,” he said. That evening he gave a most eloquent acceptance speech, and was typically dismissive about it. It is available by email if anyone wishes to read it.

In his last letter, Ashley Redburn urged that Churchill scholars continue what he called their vital work: “Keep tilting at the rewriters of history: their books have taught them so little of life. The classroom of Academe is no substitute for the classroom of Life. I wish I could join you in the fray.” He gave so much, to his country and to the memory of her greatest son. He still had more to give. But he was weary, too, and one cannot believe he minded the approaching shadows.

I wrote these words on Eleuthera, a long, high island on the Bahamas outer banks, whose name, from the Greek, means “freedom.” I think he would like that, and apply his favorite word: “How apposite you should write it there.”