Tag: Churchill by Himself

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.…

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Churchill and Burke: “Spontaneous Humour, Unparaded Erudition”

Churchill and Burke: “Spontaneous Humour, Unparaded Erudition”

1. Roberts on Burke

Reprised below are my small con­tri­bu­tions on Churchill and the great Irish states­man and thinker Edmund Burke (1729-1797). It was eclipsed in 2019 in a bril­liant speech by Andrew Roberts which the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project offers here. Dr. Roberts spoke after receiv­ing The New Cri­te­ri­on 7th Edmund Burke Award for Ser­vice to Cul­ture and Soci­ety. He also dis­cuss­es Churchill on Burke in a video inter­view with James Panero.

2. Churchill on Burke

A read­er writes:

I’d like to con­grat­u­late you on Churchill by Him­self, but I could not find any Churchill com­ments on Edmund Burke in the index.…

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Churchill Misquotes: The Red Herrings Now Number 175

Churchill Misquotes: The Red Herrings Now Number 175

Quotes and Misquotes

Churchill by Him­self, my ency­clo­pe­dia of Win­ston Churchill’s most quotable remarks, is to be repub­lished. (If the pub­lish­ers can ever agree about what form and sub­stance they will allow each oth­er to pro­duce.) To the the orig­i­nal 4000 quotes I’ve added so far 600 new ones.

The “Red Her­rings” appen­dix of mis­quotes has also grown apace. That, how­ev­er, is always kept up to date online. You can look it up:

All the “Quotes” Churchill Nev­er Said

Mis­quotes Part 1: Accept­ing Change to Euro­pean Union

Part 2: Fanat­ic to Liberty

Mis­quotes Part 3: Lies to Sex

Part 4: Sex­ism to Ypres

A trove of misquotes

The orig­i­nal “Red Her­rings” appen­dix (2008) con­tained about 80 mis­quotes.…

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Churchill By Himself: Errata and Future Editions

Churchill By Himself: Errata and Future Editions

Churchill by Himself

…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.…

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Churchill in Oslo, 1948: Stray Gems from a Distant Past

Churchill in Oslo, 1948: Stray Gems from a Distant Past

On 11-13 May 1948, Win­ston Churchill was in Nor­way to accept an hon­orary degree from Oslo Uni­ver­si­ty. He gave five speeches—University, City Hall, Stort­ing (Nor­we­gian Par­lia­ment) and two din­ners. All five can be found in Churchill’s speech vol­ume Europe Unite, or Win­ston S. Churchill: His Com­plete Speech­es 1897-1963. They offer six gems of Churchillian wis­dom. I plan to add them to the upcom­ing new edi­tion of Churchill by Him­self, my book of quotations.

Oslo Variations

A read­er reminds us of these obscure ora­tions by send­ing one: Churchill’s din­ner speech on May 12th. His source is Churchill’s Vis­it to Nor­way (Oslo: Cap­pe­lens, 1949).…

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AZ Quotes: A Cornucopia of Things Churchill Never Said

AZ Quotes: A Cornucopia of Things Churchill Never Said

Much of my labor in the Churchill Vine­yard involves research­ing quo­ta­tions “AZ.” My 650-page books and ebooks, Churchill by Him­self and Churchill in His Own Words, are the largest sources of Churchill’s phi­los­o­phy, max­ims, reflec­tions and ripostes accom­pa­nied by a valid source for each entry. There are 4,150 entries, but a new, expand­ed and revised edi­tion is com­ing. It will include a much larg­er appen­dix of “Red Herrings”—oft-repeated pas­sages he nev­er said but con­stant­ly ascribed to him.

“Red Her­rings” are part of what quotemas­ter Nigel Rees calls “Churchillian Drift.” (Click here for the full descrip­tion.)…

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Churchill on the Century

Churchill on the Century

Who here is in their For­ties? Are you as pes­simistic as he was?

Win­ston Churchill was 48 when he penned some “Reflec­tions on the Cen­tu­ry,” which may arrest you with their prescience—and their eerie relevance.

His words below are in his orig­i­nal “speech form.” This is the way they were set out on the notes he car­ried with him, how­ev­er well he mem­o­rized his lines. They appear in this style in my col­lec­tion of quo­ta­tions, Churchill by Him­self, but dif­fer from the way you may have encoun­tered them in oth­er books:

 

What a dis­ap­point­ment [this] cen­tu­ry has been.……

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Marshall: “Noblest Roman of Them All”

Marshall: “Noblest Roman of Them All”

Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­si­ty Press releas­es this month the sev­enth and final vol­ume of The Papers of George Catlett Mar­shall: “The Man of the Age,” Octo­ber 1, 1949 – Octo­ber 16, 1959. It was mas­ter­ful­ly edit­ed by Mark Stol­er and Daniel Holt under the aus­pices of the Mar­shall Cen­ter. It joins its pre­de­ces­sors pre­sent­ing the papers of one of the great­est gen­er­als and states­men of his age (1880-1959). I quick­ly assigned it for review by the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project, for its many ref­er­ences to Churchill in George Marshall’s final phase. This and the pre­vi­ous vol­ume are indis­pens­able for any­one wish­ing to under­stand the com­pli­cat­ed inter­na­tion­al scene imme­di­ate­ly after World War II.…

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Britain’s Leave Debate: Who’s Churchill? Who’s Stalin?

Britain’s Leave Debate: Who’s Churchill? Who’s Stalin?

The cam­paign to Leave is heat­ing up. Take Grass­roots Out, a “com­bined oper­a­tion” sup­port­ing Brexit—the cam­paign for Great Britain to exit the Euro­pean Union. G-O field­ed a broad spec­trum of speak­ers in Lon­don Feb­ru­ary 19th. Along with UK Inde­pen­dence Par­ty leader Nigel Farage were Con­ser­v­a­tive Sir William Cash, Labour’s Kate Hoey, econ­o­mist Ruth Lea, and a Lon­don cab driver.

The most unex­pect­ed Leave speak­er was the far-left for­mer Labour MP and head of the social­ist Respect Par­ty. Mr. George Gal­loway was imme­di­ate­ly queried about his new colleagues.

“We are not pals,” Gal­loway replied.…

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Churchill on Horses

Churchill on Horses

“We need a horse­man for our next pres­i­dent,” writes Gary Hodg­son in the Fort Mor­gan Times, who then goes on to quote “the famous rein­ing cham­pi­on, team rop­er and all around cowboy…Sir Win­ston Churchill,” who alleged­ly said: “There is some­thing about the out­side of a horse that is good for the inside of a man.”

Unless Mr. Hodg­son has found a new attri­bu­tion, that charmer is not Churchill’s. It’s list­ed in the “Red Her­rings” appen­dix in Churchill by Him­self, page 575, with this note:

​​Repeat­ed­ly attrib­uted to every­one from Woodrow Wilson’s physi­cian to Ronald Rea­gan. “Cler­gy­man Hen­ry Ward Beech­er (1813–87) is one per­son to whom the thought was attrib­uted in his time.…

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