Biography – 270 pages – my copy (hardback; 1966) purchased from the best second-hand bookshop in Plymouth during 2008, read during May 2012
#43 of 2011-12 – #164 of All Time
- 2 nods out of 5 -
‘Well, Mr Churchill says
“We gotta fight the bloody battle to the very end”’
The Kinks, 'Mr Churchill Says'
Sir Winston Churchill has been proclaimed time and again as the greatest Briton to ever sit foot on the earth. Such a legend is based, mainly, on his exploits and position during the Second World War. But it goes much deeper than that: his lifetime saw the expansion, glory and bust of the British Empire, from the late Victorian age of hidden piano legs to the swinging sixties of the Rolling Stones. His position is secured by his love of a good drink (and the many related anecdotes surrounding this), to his mammoth figure – both figuratively and literally – gracing the halls of Westminster.
However, this collection is one based on another familiar Churchillian favourite of the British public: his writing and speeches. It is a fast cobbled together project published in the immediate aftermath of Churchill’s death in 1965. Guy Boas is the editor of this particular edition, pooling together snippets from Churchill’s surprisingly vast back catalogue; surprising due to the great weight of the ministerial offices he assumed during half a century of life in Parliament.
The reader takes a journey through Churchill’s early, and often humorous, memories from My Early Life; his experiences in India and as a correspondent in the Boer War; illuminating segments from his books detailing the First World War; and even greater selections from the books that comprise his series on the Second World War. Alongside this, towards the end, are somewhat perplexing pages on painting as a hobby. The Worm’s very own musty copy has been well thumbed, the pages folded throughout; most notably the war-time speeches:
‘No one can predict, no one can even imagine, how this terrible war against German and Nazi aggression will run its course or how far it will spread or how long it will last. Long, dark months of trials and tribulations lie before us. Not only great dangers, but many more misfortunes, many shortcomings, many mistakes, many disappointments will surely be our lot. Death and sorrow will be the companions of our journey; hardship our garment; constancy and valour our only shield. We must be united, we must be undaunted, we must be inflexible. Our qualities and deeds must burn and glow through the gloom of Europe until they become the veritable beacon of its salvation.’
Despite Boas’ over-abundance of back-patting (as to be expected in the aftermath of the death of such a colossus), this volume retains a semblance of importance in the twenty-first century. Undoubtedly, it would be a rarity to come across a person who has read the entirety of Churchill’s previous works; but a selection of some of his finest, courage building, morale boasting words he committed to paper. The Worm recommends buying a similarly updated edition today, to really find out what one of the greatest Britons was about.
Buy it here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Churchill-Churchill-Selections-writings-speeches/dp/B000WTKPJ0/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1340291092&sr=11
