George Orwell Archives - Richard M. Langworth

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

5 June 2023 Comments 1 Comment

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.

Churchill, Orwell and “1984”

25 August 2022 Comments 0 Comments

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."

Bulldog Not: Say it isn’t So

28 May 2009 Comments 0 Comments

“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.…