Sir Martin Gilbert CBE, 1936-2015 (2)
“Rose-lipt Maidens, Lightfoot Lads”
continued from part 1…
“Stop that!” Seated beside him at his first appearance before the Churchill Society—the second Churchill Tour on 17 September 1985—I had caught Martin Gilbert riffling through a briefcase crammed with sheets of yellow foolscap, tossing some out as the minutes ticked by before his lecture, “Churchill’s London: Spinning Top of Memories.”
It was the first time I would hear a Gilbert speech, and here he was, culling it already. “This is my ‘Speech Form,’” he explained, referring to the term Churchill used for his speaking notes. Unlike Churchill, whose typed speech notes included every word, the lines picked out like verses of the Psalms, Martin’s sheets each contained only a few handwritten words.…
