Tag: Clementine Churchill

“Darling Monster”: Diana Cooper and Her Remembrances of Churchill

“Darling Monster”: Diana Cooper and Her Remembrances of Churchill

Dar­ling Mon­ster: The Let­ters of Lady Diana Coop­er to her Son John Julius Nor­wich 1939-1952, Chat­to & Win­dus, 2013, 520pp.

Lady Diana Duff Coop­er had a pen­e­trat­ing mind and bril­liant pen, capa­ble of cap­tur­ing a time when women con­sid­ered the world laden with oppor­tu­ni­ty for fulfillment.

She proved this with her famous sev­en-year per­for­mance in Max Rein­hardt’s “The Mir­a­cle.” Her “Win­ston and Clemen­tine,” first pub­lished in The Atlantic just after Sir Winston’s death, was as fine a trib­ute to the Churchill mar­riage as we are like­ly to encounter.Her col­lab­o­ra­tion with her husband’s ambas­sador­ship to France was notable.…

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“Churchill and the Movies”: Hillsdale Lecture Series, March 24-28th

“Churchill and the Movies”: Hillsdale Lecture Series, March 24-28th

The Movies

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’s Cen­ter for Con­struc­tive Alter­na­tives (CCA) is the spon­sor of one of the largest col­lege lec­ture series in Amer­i­ca.…

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Clementine Churchill as Literary Critic

Clementine Churchill as Literary Critic

Q: Clementine as Editor

Your book Churchill By Him­self is a trea­sure to which I fre­quent­ly refer. I am a retired pro­fes­sor who recent­ly lost his wife. I am prepar­ing a memo­r­i­al to her and found Churchill’s words as quot­ed in Andrew Roberts’ recent biog­ra­phy to be per­fect. The sense of his words is that his wife Clemen­tine was was a fre­quent, strong and fair crit­ic of his writ­ings, always help­ful. I know that is not much to go on but I would appre­ci­ate cor­rob­o­rat­ing infor­ma­tion.  —M.S., via email

A: “Here firm, though all be drifting”

I will have to pon­der your ques­tion, because his remarks about Lady Churchill are main­ly trib­utes to her as wife, friend and advi­sor, not lit­er­ary critic–although of course she was that too.…

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His Mother’s Son: “My Darling Winston,” David Lough, Ed.

His Mother’s Son: “My Darling Winston,” David Lough, Ed.

David Lough, edi­tor, My Dar­ling Win­ston: The Let­ters Between Win­ston Churchill and His Moth­er. Lon­don: Pega­sus, 610 pages, $35, Ama­zon $33.25, Kin­dle $15.49. Reprint­ed from a review for the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project. For Hills­dale reviews of Churchill works since 2014, click here. For a list and syn­opses of books about Churchill since 1905, vis­it Hillsdale’s anno­tat­ed bibliography.

See also my trib­ute to Lee Remick as “Jen­nie.” and Part 1 of the film. 

David Lough…

…added sig­nif­i­cant­ly to our knowl­edge with No More Cham­pagne (2015), his study of Churchill’s finances. Now he fills anoth­er gap in the saga with this com­pre­hen­sive col­lec­tion of Churchill’s exchanges with his moth­er Jen­nie, Lady Ran­dolph Churchill.…

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Winston Churchill and Polo, Part 2, by Barbara Langworth

Winston Churchill and Polo, Part 2, by Barbara Langworth

“Win­ston Churchill and Polo” was first pub­lished in 1991. It is now updat­ed and amend­ed, thanks to the rich store of mate­r­i­al avail­able in The Churchill Doc­u­ments pub­lished by Hills­dale Col­lege Press. This arti­cle is abridged with­out foot­notes from the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project. For the com­plete text and foot­notes, click here.

============== Con­tin­ued from Part 1…

Part 2: Dislocations

On 18 Decem­ber 1898 Win­ston Churchill wrote to his friend Aylmer Hal­dane. “I am leav­ing the army in April. I have come back mere­ly for the Polo Tour­na­ments.”  He told his moth­er he would stay at Gov­ern­ment House.…

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Churchill, Women’s Suffrage and “Black Friday,” November 1910

Churchill, Women’s Suffrage and “Black Friday,” November 1910

“Churchill, Suf­frage and Black Fri­day”: excerpt­ed from my arti­cle for the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project. For the full text, includ­ing Churchill’s let­ters to the head of the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Police (22 Novem­ber 1910) and to Prime Min­is­ter Asquith (21 Decem­ber 1911), click here.

A Lon­don Uni­ver­si­ty stu­dent writes for help with his dis­ser­ta­tion. Its top­ic is the rela­tion­ship between Home Sec­re­tary Win­ston Churchill, the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Police, and their han­dling of women’s suf­frage demon­stra­tors in Novem­ber 1910. His ques­tions illus­trate Churchill’s domes­tic states­man­ship. Our answers refute the belief that Churchill stri­dent­ly opposed women’s suf­frage except on iso­lat­ed occa­sions in polit­i­cal tactics.…

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Movies and Churchill: Hillsdale College, Michigan, 24-28 March 2019

Movies and Churchill: Hillsdale College, Michigan, 24-28 March 2019

Movies at Hillsdale

In 1927, Win­ston Churchill wrote to his wife Clemen­tine, “I am becom­ing a film fan.” He installed pro­jec­tion equip­ment for movies 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 final event by Hillsdale’s Cen­ter for Con­struc­tive Alter­na­tives in the 2018-19 aca­d­e­m­ic year. It explores two movies regard­ed as Churchill’s favorites and two bio­graph­i­cal movies in his­tor­i­cal con­text. My lec­ture address­es Hen­ry V with Lau­rence Olivi­er. We will dis­cuss Churchill’s under­stand­ing of Shake­speare, and appli­ca­tion of the lessons of The Bard’s plays.…

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Motor On: Churchill Thwarted (Or: For Once, the Authorities Prevailed)

Motor On: Churchill Thwarted (Or: For Once, the Authorities Prevailed)

The dis­tin­guished his­to­ri­an Paul Addi­son sends along a minor but amus­ing tale of a Churchill motor car (prob­a­bly his new Napi­er). Churchill didn’t get his way, because he him­self wasn’t behind the wheel. Had he been dri­ving, he would like­ly have pro­ceed­ed to get round the obstruc­tion by dri­ving on the pave­ment (side­walk).  This per­ilous endeav­or was wit­nessed first­hand lat­er on by WSC’s body­guard, Detec­tive-Inspec­tor Wal­ter Thomp­son.

Turned Back: The Home Secretary and his Motor

Dai­ly Her­ald, 10 April 1911— Mr. Win­ston Churchill had a curi­ous expe­ri­ence on Sat­ur­day while motor­ing to Banstead.…

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“Too Easy to Be Good”: The Churchill Marriage and Lady Castlerosse

“Too Easy to Be Good”: The Churchill Marriage and Lady Castlerosse

My arti­cle, “The Churchill Mar­riage and Lady Castlerosse” was first pub­lished by The Amer­i­can Spec­ta­tor on 13 March 2018.

“Here Firm, Though All Be Drifting” —WSC

It’s all over the Inter­net, so it must be true. Not only did Win­ston Churchill oppose women’s rights, gas tribes­men, starve Indi­ans, fire­bomb Dres­den, nurse anti-Semi­tism and wish to nuke Moscow. He even cheat­ed on his wife—in a four-year affair with Doris Delev­ingne, Vis­count­ess Castlerosse.

So declare the authors of “Sir John Colville, Churchillian Net­works, and the ‘Castlerosse Affair’”—unre­served­ly repeat­ed by British tele­vi­sion, mul­ti­ple media, even a uni­ver­si­ty: (“Win­ston Churchill’s affair revealed by for­got­ten tes­ti­mo­ny.”

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Lady Diana Cooper on Winston and Clementine Churchill

Lady Diana Cooper on Winston and Clementine Churchill

Excerpt*

Famed for her beau­ty and the “durable fire” of her mar­riage to Alfred Duff Coop­er, First Vis­count Nor­wich, The Lady Diana Coop­er was ear­ly admit­ted to  friend­ship with Win­ston and Clemen­tine Churchill. A stun­ning beau­ty and an accom­plished actress, she was a glit­ter­ing writer. Her tril­o­gy of mem­oirs is redo­lent of that van­ished Eng­land the Coop­ers and Churchills loved. Her books are worth seek­ing out: The Light of Com­mon Day, Trum­pets from the Steep and The Rain­bow Comes and Goes (1958-60).

In anoth­er age, when even Churchill’s mar­riage is ques­tioned by the igno­rant, Lady Diana offers words worth remem­ber­ing.…

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