Churchill by Himself: The Life, Times and Opinions of Winston Churchill in His Own Words edited by Richard M Langworth

Andrew Roberts5 April 2012

You'll know those little Wit and Wisdom of Winston Churchill paperbacks, compendiums of sage remarks, funny rejoinders and gags that Churchill is thought to have made over his long life. They are often found next to the cash register in bookshops before Christmas, alongside similar compilations of Oscar Wilde's witticisms and The World's Worst Insults. Well, this is nothing like them.

Richard M Langworth is second only to Sir Martin Gilbert himself, Churchill's biographer, in his encyclopaedic knowledge of Churchill's published words and their historical context. Editor for a quarter of a century of Finest Hour, the magazine of the Churchill Centre, Langworth is the man to whom historians go in order to track down a possible Churchill quote. Not merely a Churchill expert, he is more of an oracle.

This 620-page collection of the best of Churchill's published writings and sayings therefore constitutes by far the most authoritative likely to be produced for very many years, and must find a place on the shelves of everyone interested in the man voted History's Greatest Briton in 1999.

The book is further proof of the fact that Churchill was constitutionally incapable of writing or speaking a boring sentence. Often if you think you spot a cliché by him, it is only because Churchill himself, having edited by Richard M Langworth (Ebury, £20) ANDREW ROBERTS uttered it, made it so. I defy any reader to open this book at any page — it is broken down into 34 subject chapters — and to pick a quotation at random and not then feel compelled to read on. The quotes are all meticulously sourced, often with detailed comments about attributions.

Langworth has also devoted a chapter to common misattributions, ie things that Churchill did not say, indeed personally denied ever saying, but which are still attributed to him by urban myth and its provisional wing, the internet. It is quite untrue, for example, that he ever stated that naval tradition consisted of "Rum, buggery and the lash", although he told his private secretary he wished he had.

Churchill similarly never said "Jaw, jaw is better than war, war", "The heaviest cross I have to bear is the Cross of Lorraine", "He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire", "I am just preparing my impromptu remarks", the old joke about poisoning Nancy Astor's coffee (which was probably said by his friend FE Smith), or even the quip about Sir Stafford Cripps: "There, but for the grace of God, goes God".

Even the Queen misquoted Churchill in her 1999 Christmas broadcast, though not egregiously.

Churchill did not make smutty gags; his mind didn't work like that. Thus the one supposedly uttered in the Commons urinals about Clement Attlee wanting to nationalise everything big that he saw is a fiction. When a lady told him, "I got up at dawn and drove 100 miles for the unveiling of your bust," sadly Churchill did not reply, "Madam, I would happily reciprocate the honour." For all the scores of jokes Churchill did not make, however, the indefatigable editor has identified hundreds of much funnier ones that he did.

Langworth also goes into fascinating detail about the origins of some of Churchill's better-known sayings. Phrases including a combination of "blood, toil, tears and sweat" can be traced back to Cicero, Livy, John Donne ("with thy Teares, or Sweat, or Bloud") and Byron ("Blood, sweat and tearwrung millions"). In 1939, a Lady Tegart wrote of Jewish colonies in Palestine being "built on a foundation of blood, sweat and tears" in an article Churchill might have read. When he liked a phrase he would use and adapt it often, as he did on 13 May 1940 when addressing the Commons as prime minister for the first time. The addition of the word "toil" to the list of the three bodily f luids made it all the more powerful, making up the quartet of sacrificial elements that the British people must provide in order to win their "Victory — victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror; victory, however long and hard the road may be".

Synopsis by Foyles.co.uk

Churchill (1874-1965) was one of the 20th century's most charismatic and controversial figures. He escaped from capture as a prisoner of war in the Boer War, was a Nobel Prize-winning author and twice prime minister. He is best remembered as the astute and powerful orator who inspired a battered Britain to victory and led the post-war, shattered nation to recovery. Richard Langworth, co-chairman and editor of "The Churchill Centre", has spent over 20 years researching Churchill's written and spoken words.In "Churchill by Himself", which is fully authorised by the Churchill Estate, Langworth has edited and annotated this library to make the definitive collection of Churchill's words, thematically arranged. He also highlights the myriad quotations commonly mis-attributed to Churchill. From his meetings with world leaders such as Roosevelt, de Gaulle and Stalin, his verbal engagements with Hitler and the Third Reich, to his wit and oratory on the floor of the Commons, every facet of Churchill's life and times is explored with his own pragmatic intelligence, sharp humour and legendary wisdom.

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