Winston S. Churchill Archives - Richard M. Langworth

French Magnanimity: De Gaulle’s Gift of a Lalique Cockerel

24 January 2025 Comments 0 Comments

“The conversation turned to the French Fleet, and Clementine said she hoped that its ships and crews would carry on the fight with us. De Gaulle curtly replied that what would really give the French Fleet satisfaction would be to turn their guns ‘On you!’ (meaning the British). Winston tried to mediate but Clementine interrupted him, and said in French: ‘No, Winston, it is because there are certain things that a woman can say to a man which a man cannot say, and I am saying them to you—General de Gaulle!’” After this verbal fracas, the General was much upset, and apologised profusely, and later presented her with the Lalique.

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Sir Winstonus: “And thou, fair dame, art not of angels born, Thy tongue’s keen edge doth all who cross thee warn. Yet in thy zeal to strike with jest and jeer, Thou dost forget the mirror drawing near.” Shakespeare’s “Henry VIII and Catherine” by the artist B. Trell, 1887. (Wikimedia Commons)

Churchllian Shakespeare: AI Presents “You’re drunk…You’re ugly”

20 January 2025 Comments 0 Comments

Setting: A grand hall in Westminster. Tapestries hang from the walls, and the faint clink of goblets echoes through the air. Enter: Sir Winstonus Churchillius, goblet in hand. Lady Bessica Braddockia approaches, fanning herself dramatically. Lady Bessica: “Hail, Sir Winstonus, thou art returned, From feasting, drinking, or some sport absurd? Thy face is flushed, and eyes like moons do glow; Dost thou drown England’s cares in wine's deep flow?”

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Update: AI Churchill Quotes: Yes, We Have No Bananas

15 January 2025 Comments 1 Comment

They may have slipped on a banana, but ChatGPT has only been at this for a few years. "Give them another half decade and they'll probably have picked up every word Churchill wrote." So, before we lazily laugh at the tech boffins' failure accurately to pinpoint the Great Man's every word, we might stop to consider: They are just getting started. As Churchill was wont to say on occasion: "Let not the slothful chortle."

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Secrets of Statecraft with Andrew Roberts: Churchill, 150 Years On

10 January 2025 Comments 1 Comment

Honor(u)red to be invited to join Lord Roberts, at Secrets of Statecraft. It was fun to chat with the author of the foremost one-volume life of Churchill, about where Sir Winston stands on his 150th birthday. We mutually concluded that he stands as tall as ever. Beyond that, we need to remember him because he spoke everlasting truths about the relations between peoples, about governance, about the value of liberty. Those are as relevant as ever today.

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Reviewing Netflix’s Churchill: The Things We Do for England…

5 January 2025 Comments 2 Comments

There’s a way to derive a mostly correct picture of the man from this show: ignore Part 1. The other three parts also suffer from occasional forays into fiction. But they are more accurate, with honest dialogue, well-chosen quotations and spectacular footage, much of it freshly colorized. Kudos to Andrew Roberts, Jon Meacham, Allen Packwood and Catherine Katz for keeping it on track, and to Lord Roberts for his eloquent finale.

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Munro in the Civil & Military Gazette, Lahore, 1 January 1942

Happy New Year: “May we all come through safe and with honour”

31 December 2024 Comments 0 Comments

As the last minutes of 1941 ticked away, Churchill’s special train was steaming south on New York Central's broad tracks along the Hudson. Appropriately close to Roosevelt’s home at Hyde Park, the Prime Minister called staff and reporters to the dining car. He entered the carriage amid cheers and applause, raising his glass to the company. “It was with no illusions,” he wrote, “that I wished them all a glorious New Year.... 'Here’s to 1942, here’s to a year of toil—a year of struggle and peril, and a long step forward towards victory. May we all come through safe and with honour.'"

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The Language: Canceling Clichés and Issues over “Issues”

20 December 2024 Comments 3 Comments

Commentator Bill O’Reilly proposes a new Cancel Culture for a collection of jargon that Churchill would define as “grimaces.” A cliché, he says, is “a phrase or opinion that is overused and lacks original thought.” Here are his nominations for grimaces we never need to hear again. He forgot “issues” but it’s not a bad list! Celebrate O’Reilly’s modest proposal: Avoid fashionable filters and fad-words in language. “Short words are best,” Churchill said, “and the old words, when short, are best of all.”

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Tim Benson and the Cartoonists’ Churchill

15 November 2024 Comments 1 Comment

Benson devotes himself mainly to the Second World War. The uplifting spirit of British cartoonists in the black days of 1940-41 is at once evident. A glow of resolve swept Britain; there were no carping media midgets such as we hear from today. That was a time, as Churchill put it, “when it was equally good to live or die.” The pace picks up as Hitler invades Russia. The Daily Sketch pictures Roosevelt leading a sailing race in a boat marked “Lend-Lease.” Melbourne’s Herald adds Aussie humor: Tojo being fed a cigar (lit end first), and wrestler Churchill putting a toe-hold on a screaming Mussolini. This is a first-class work of scholarship in addition to high entertainment.

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Unanswered Questions: Churchill and Rudolf Diesel

5 November 2024 Comments 1 Comment

It is known that Rudolf Diesel boarded the “Dresden” that fatal October in 1913 intending to meet with the British about licensing his invention. By then Churchill and Fisher were well along on the conversion from coal to oil for capital ships, and WSC had secured an oil supply through the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. How far Diesel developments had affected designs for submarines or Churchill’s “landship” (the tank) bears further investigation.

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Questions on Books: The Second World War

30 October 2024 Comments 0 Comments

Not all translations spanned the complete six volumes. The Turkish Edition contained only the first two volumes. Wendy Reves, wife of Churchill’s literary agent, Emery Reves, told me that the publishers refused to pay for the rest! The first Russian edition (1956-58) contained only the first three volumes, though Ronald Cohen also lists a later, complete Russian edition published in 1997-98. There were also eight translations of Churchill’s one-volume abridged edition, first published in 1959.

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