Tag: George Orwell

D-Day +79: “Rough Men Stand Ready,” a Shared Sentiment

D-Day +79: “Rough Men Stand Ready,” a Shared Sentiment

On the 79th anniversary of D-Day, this quote is likely to come up again. Neither Churchill's nor Orwell's, it nevertheless resounds with their sentiments. Quote Investigator provides a vast subtext to the various appearances and credits of “Rough men stand ready” over the years. Their conclusion is that no one specifically said the words. But Kipling may have inspired them, and Orwell paraphrased them, and they are in the Churchill spirit.

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Churchill, Orwell and “1984”

Churchill, Orwell and “1984”

Orwell on Churchill: "It is rumoured that after promising to fight in the streets he turned from the microphone and said: 'We'll throw bottles at the bastards; it's about all we've got left!' One may assume that this story is untrue, but at the time it was felt that it ought to be true. It was a fitting tribute from ordinary people to the tough and humorous old man whom they would not accept as a peacetime leader [in 1945] but whom in the moment of disaster they felt to be representative of themselves."

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Bulldog Not: Say it isn’t So

Bulldog Not: Say it isn’t So

“The clas­sic British bull­dog, a sym­bol of defi­ance and pugnac­i­ty, may now dis­ap­pear. A shake-up of breed­ing  stan­dards by the Ken­nel Club has sig­nalled the end of the dog’s Churchillian jowl. Instead, the dog will  have a shrunk­en face, a sunken nose, longer legs and a lean­er body. The British Bull­dog Breed Coun­cil is threat­en­ing legal action against the Ken­nel Club. Chair­man Robin Sear­le said: ‘What you’ll get is a com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent dog, not a British bulldog.’

I referred this one to long­time col­league, promi­nent motor­ing writer and bull­dog par­ti­san Gra­ham Rob­son, who writes:

As a long-time bull­dog own­er (you have met var­i­ous of my much-loved mutts) I am at once delight­ed and appalled by what is being pro­posed.…

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