Tag: Winston S. Churchill

Coote
Sketch by a member, 1917: “The Attorney General [F.E. Smith], a great Captain [unknown], a risen Minister [Churchill] and two insignificant members of The Other Club leave the Savoy unobserved by the general public. N.B. —> A and —> B are intended to draw attention to the duration of the virgin glance of an insignificant member.” —From Colin Coote, The Other Club (1971)
Recorders of Churchill’s Canon: Colin R. Coote DSO

Recorders of Churchill’s Canon: Colin R. Coote DSO

A read­er asks: “Who pub­lished the first com­pi­la­tion of Win­ston Churchill’s wit and wis­dom, and when?” It was Col­in Coote, in 1947—a dear man devot­ed to the hero­ic mem­o­ry. My quo­ta­tions book Churchill by Him­self  is ded­i­cat­ed in part to him.

Colin Reith Coote

Sir Col­in (1893-1979) was a British jour­nal­ist and Lib­er­al politi­cian. For four­teen years he was edi­tor of the Dai­ly Tele­graph. There he came to know and admire Churchill. Short­ly after World War II, he thought to com­pile a book of Churchillisms, anno­tat­ed to val­i­date each entry. He wrote for per­mis­sion, and received a kind and rev­e­la­to­ry reply, which pro­vid­ed Churchill’s view of his lit­er­ary assigns:

28 Hyde Park Gate, 21 July 1946

My dear Colin,

Thank you for your let­ter of July 15.…

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Wilson
Harold Wilson and Aneurin Bevan around the time of their resignation. (History Today)
Hillsdale’s Churchill Documents: Harold Wilson, 1951

Hillsdale’s Churchill Documents: Harold Wilson, 1951

“Two days ear­li­er I had been a Min­is­ter of the Crown, red box and all. Now I was reduced to the posi­tion of a mes­sen­ger between my wife and Win­ston Churchill, each of whom burst into tears on receipt of a mes­sage from the oth­er.” —Harold Wilson 

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The Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project is rapid­ly com­plet­ing final vol­umes of Win­ston S. Churchill, the offi­cial biog­ra­phy. (The name is some­what of a mis­nomer; no one has ever cen­sored any mate­r­i­al.) Suit­ably, all thir­ty-one vol­umes will be com­plete by June 2019: the 75th Anniver­sary of D-Day. It will be fifty-six years since Ran­dolph Churchill and his “Young Gen­tle­men” includ­ing Mar­tin Gilbert began their work.…

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polo
Winston Churchill and Polo, Part 1, by Barbara Langworth

Winston Churchill and Polo, Part 1, 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.

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Churchill loved polo, which he called “The Emper­or of Games.” A con­tem­po­rary writer’s descrip­tion of his polo tac­tics is remind­ful of much else in the statesmen’s approach to life and politics:

He rides in the game like heavy cav­al­ry get­ting into posi­tion for the assault.…

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poker
Around this table, Harry and Winston played poker, March 1946. Dining car of the “Ferdinand Magellan,” President Truman’s special railcar. (Wikimedia Commons)
Churchill, Truman and Poker on the Train to Fulton, March 1946

Churchill, Truman and Poker on the Train to Fulton, March 1946

How Harry fleeced Winston at poker, and the PM wished to be born again…

The Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project is clos­ing in on fin­ish­ing Win­ston S. Churchill, the offi­cial biog­ra­phy. At thir­ty-one vol­umes, it is the longest on record and will have tak­en fifty-six years to com­plete. It is an hon­or to be part of the team now review­ing proofs for the penul­ti­mate doc­u­ment (com­pan­ion) vol­ume. This runs from August 1945, after Churchill was turned out of office, through Sep­tem­ber 1951, when he was about to regain it. The last vol­ume (1951-65) will be pub­lished next year, with suit­able celebrations.…

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escape
The escaped desperado: Durban, Natal, 1908.
“A Sun that Never Sets”: Churchill’s Autobiography, “My Early Life”

“A Sun that Never Sets”: Churchill’s Autobiography, “My Early Life”

Win­ston S. Churchill, My Ear­ly Life: A Rov­ing Com­mis­sion. (Lon­don: Thorn­ton But­ter­worth, 1930; New York: Scrib­n­ers, 1930.) Numer­ous reprints and edi­tions since, includ­ing e-books. Excerpt­ed from the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project. For the full arti­cle, click here.

Connoisseur’s Guide

My Ear­ly Life appeared a year before the last vol­ume of The World Cri­sis. The sub­ti­tle, “A Rov­ing Com­mis­sion,” is from the first chap­ter of Churchill’s Ian Hamilton’s March. It seems he took it from an ear­li­er nov­el by G.A. Hen­ty, one of his favorite authors. The titles changed places in the first Amer­i­can edition.

A won­der­ful treat is in store in this most approach­able of Churchill’s books. …

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Sria
Publisher photo
Desert Island Books: Charles Krauthammer’s “Things that Matter”

Desert Island Books: Charles Krauthammer’s “Things that Matter”

Charles Krauthammer’s Things That Mat­ter: Three Decades of Pas­sions, Pas­times and Pol­i­tics (388 pages, Crown Forum, 2013). In remem­ber­ing Dr. Krautham­mer, I said this book was one of a score I’d take with me if con­fined to a desert island. Here’s why. 

The read­er will ask: why am I plug­ging to a Churchill audi­ence a set of essays by a polit­i­cal colum­nist? Answer: because many are not polit­i­cal, yet reflect Churchillian thought. More­over, Dr. Krauthammer’s essay about Churchill is one of the best sum­maries of the man I’ve ever read. By any­body. Anywhere.

Sig­nif­i­cant­ly, in a book of over near­ly nine­ty columns and essays, the Churchill arti­cle ranks second—in Part I (enti­tled “Personal”)—after a piece on the author’s beloved broth­er, Mar­cel, who also died young after an hero­ic strug­gle.…

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Quixote
Don Quixote and Sancho Panza (er, I mean Roosevelt and Churchill) at Casablanca, January 1943. (Life)
Roosevelt and Churchill: Don Quixote and Sancho Panza?

Roosevelt and Churchill: Don Quixote and Sancho Panza?

A col­league asks whether Win­ston and Clemen­tine Churchill’s pri­vate name for  Pres­i­dent Roo­sevelt was “Don Quixote.” Also, who com­pared Roo­sevelt and Churchill to Don Quixote and San­cho Pan­za? This offers an inter­est­ing trawl through the sources.

So far as I can learn, the Quixote – Pan­za anal­o­gy for Roo­sevelt and Churchill (also FDR and his devot­ed advis­er Har­ry Hop­kins) occurred only dur­ing the 1943 Casablan­ca Con­fer­ence (SYMBOL). Roo­sevelt pro­posed those code names, and I rather think Churchill had dif­fer­ent image of them than FDR. (Oxford Eng­lish Dic­tio­nary: “Quixote: Enthu­si­as­tic vision­ary, pur­suer of lofty but imprac­ti­ca­ble ideals.”)…

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music
Churchill’s daughter Lady Soames (green dress) at Harrow Songs. (Harrow School)
The Music Winston Churchill Loved (with audio links)

The Music Winston Churchill Loved (with audio links)

Don Cusic, Win­ston Churchill’s Love of Music: Churchill Didn’t Have a Tin Ear (Nashville: Brack­ish Pub­lish­ing, 2018), 122 pages, $21. Audio links can eas­i­ly be pro­vid­ed online. Excerpt­ed from a review for the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project. For the full review, click here.

Music by Cusic

Cusic’s text traces Churchill’s life and career, track­ing every ref­er­ence the author found to music and song. We range from the march­es, dit­ties and Gilbert & Sul­li­van Churchill loved to the pow­er­ful­ly inspi­ra­tional. Which lyrics are pre­sent­ed is pure­ly arbi­trary, but once cho­sen, we get every word. Churchill’s youth­ful encoun­ters with the ’cel­lo and piano are duly not­ed.…

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motor
The Churchills’ 1911 Napier landaulette receiving chauffeur attention, with WSC and Clementine aboard, circa 1912.
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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bomb
“It seems to me that the moment has come when the question of bombing of German cities simply for the sake of increasing the terror, though under other pretexts, should be reviewed….The destruction of Dresden remains a serious query against the conduct of Allied bombing.” —Churchill, 28 March 1945
Churchill, Arthur Harris and Decisions to Bomb Germany

Churchill, Arthur Harris and Decisions to Bomb Germany

Churchill wrote of a visit to blitzed London:  "When we got back into the car, a harsher mood swept over this haggard crowd. 'Give it ’em back,' they cried, and, 'Let them have it too.' I undertook forthwith to see that their wishes were carried out; and this promise was certainly kept." On the other hand, alone among Allied leaders, Churchill said, after being shown the results of one particularly gruesome raid, “Are we beasts? Are we taking this too far?” He said the decision to bomb Dresden was "a serious query against the conduct of Allied bombing."

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RML Books

Richard Langworth’s Most Popular Books & eBooks


Winston Churchill, Myth and Reality

Churchill by Himself

Churchill in His Own Words

Churchill and the Avoidable War

The Definitive Wit of Winston Churchill

The Patriot’s Churchill

Triumph Cars - The Complete Story
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