Bulletin #56 - Feb 2013

If you would like to submit an article, please send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and we'll make sure it is considered for publication.

Author Cita Stelzer Discusses "Dinner with Churchill" on BookTV (Watch)

The author considers Churchill's policy-making at the dinner table.

Author and Churchill Centre Trustee Cita Stelzer talked about her recent book, Dinner with Churchill: Policy-Making at the Dinner Table, in which she examined the dinners hosted by Winston Churchill during and after World War II, which were used to persuade world leaders to adopt his position on various matters.

Ms. Stelzer also responded to questions from the audience at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, Arizona.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 12 February 2013 21:51

Appreciation: The Young Churchill Poem Hints at the Rhetorical Greatness to Come

The only known piece of poetry by a young Winston Churchill, written as he served with the British Army, carries echoes of Henry V. WSC in the uniform and the first page of the poem ©Getty By Sameer Rahim THE TELEGRAPH, 06 February 2013 — Ordinarily the appearance of previously little-known poem by a winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature would stir the interest of literary critics round the nation. The fact that this particular Nobel-winner is Winston Churchill – he was awarded the prize in 1953 for his History of the English-Speaking Peoples – would probably make the English profs take a back seat. Churchill was a fine orator and had a way with English prose but it is generally acknowledged that he was given the Nobel literature prize as a reward for leading Britain during the Second World War – they couldn't in all honesty give him the Peace Prize, could they? But given the barrage of interest in Churchill – there are at least a dozen books published about him each year – there will be plenty of biographers poring over "Our Modern Watchwords", a poem written in blue crayon on the notepaper of his regiment the 4th Hussars in 1898. Written in regular iambic tetrameter but with irregular rhymes, the poem exists in a tradition that stretches back to Homer's Iliad: the solider waiting impatiently for the battle to begin. As Churchill writes: "The silence of a mighty fleet / Portends the tumult yet to be." Allen Packwood, the director of the Churchill Archive Centre in Cambridge, compares the verse to Kipling, which is stretching it a bit. Kipling's Barrack-Room Ballads published in the same decade were a superb imitation of the ordinary Tommy's voice.
Last Updated on Tuesday, 12 February 2013 21:37
Read more...

Living Heritage: Letter to the New Prime Minister from David Lloyd George

Visit the Living Heritage section on the UK Parliament's website. DLG to WSC, 29 May 1940After David Lloyd George resigned as Prime Minister in 1922 he remained active in political life, devoting his energies to social reforms. He did not become involved in political discussion about the Second World War until 8 May 1940, when he made a speech in the House of Commons attacking Neville Chamberlain's leadership. This played a significant role in forcing Chamberlain's resignation just two days later when Winston Churchill then took up the position of Prime Minister. Less than a month after Churchill became Prime Minister, he asked Lloyd George to become a member of the war cabinet. This is the letter from Lloyd George to Winston Churchill declining the offer for the present.
Last Updated on Tuesday, 12 February 2013 21:14
Read more...

Chartwell Bookseller Proprietor Barry Singer on Freakonomics Radio (Listen)

Bookseller and author Barry Singer on weighs in on Churchill's Style. The episode of Freakonomics Radio begins with a conversation between Stephen Dubner and Barry Singer, the proprietor of Chartwell Booksellers in New York City. Chartwell is the world's only Winston Churchill bookshop. (It's also the name of Churchill's estate in Kent.) Singer is an author, too, and he has recently published a book called Churchill Style: The Art of Being Winston Churchill. The book details the well-appointed life that Britain's most storied Prime Minister was known for: expensive cigars, Pol Roger champagne, crested slippers, custom jumpsuits from Turnbull & Asser — black for evening wear; gray pinstripe for day.
Last Updated on Tuesday, 12 February 2013 23:27
Read more...

48th Anniversary of the Death of Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill

Remembering the "Day of Sorrow" in January 1965. This year, on the 24th of January, marked the 48th anniversary of Sir Winston Churchill's death in 1965. Click the image below to watch a short video (in rare colour film) commemorating the date and his state funeral in London.
Last Updated on Tuesday, 12 February 2013 23:46
Read more...

Churchillians-by-the-Bay Glow Worm

The most recent edition of Northern California's chapter newsletter.
Last Updated on Tuesday, 12 February 2013 23:10

Churchill Centre UK Notice Board

A recap of all of the recent events in the United Kingdom. Debate. As advised in our last edition (November 2012), a debate was held at the London School of Economics on 21st November, at which the motion was that "WSC was more of a progressive than a reactionary". The lead arguments were made by Lord Hurd of Westwell, Professor David Edgerton, Professor John Charmley and Dr Piers Brendon. Emma Soames and Randolph Churchill attended and a number of other TCC-UK members were also present. All the main speakers felt that there were aspects of both traits in WSC's make-up, though in differing degrees: the consensus was that WSC was both a progressive and a reactionary. No vote was taken. THE LSE and TCC-UK are currently discussing plans to stage a second LSE Churchill Debate in November 2013. Chartwell: Special Exhibition. Although the house itself is now closed for the winter, a temporary exhibition, exploring WSC's transatlantic family heritage and how the two main branches of his ancestral family shaped him and his path in life, is now open. A wide range of objects, borrowed from the house and from private collections of family members, is now on show. Of the 50 items in the exhibition, called In the Blood, over half have never been previously seen on public display and have been brought together for this temporary event only. The exhibition is open daily from 11.00 am till 4.00 pm and closes on 24th February. Admission charge to the public is £6.50, but TCC-UK members will be admitted free on production of valid membership cards.
Last Updated on Tuesday, 12 February 2013 23:05
Read more...