Winston S. Churchill (1874-1965)
September 6, 2005
As many others have observed, some periods of history seem to produce more than their share of bigger-than-life characters. World War II produced a bumper crop of such men, and Winston S. Churchill towered over all of them. For an incredibly long time, from 1938 through 1955, Churchill was a giant on the world scene.
This summer I have been avidly reading the six massive volumes comprising Churchill’s masterpiece memoir, The Second World War. Most of the text consists of hundreds of “minutes” (memos) written as he and the likes of Franklin Roosevelt, Josef Stalin, and Charles de Gaulle, dealt with world crises. Churchill pretty much lets the words exchanged between them tell the story with little interpretation on his part.
I admire the way he ordered his personal life. He had a life-simplification garment that he called his “zip,” a one piece zip-up coverall that he wore on many informal and travel occasions. During the English blitz, this “siren suit” became his trade-mark.
He also developed a way of conserving energy that served him well as he got older and the demands on him grew. He learned to pop into bed and sleep soundly for an hour or two in the early afternoon, and this kept him going at top form until well past midnight. He then slept soundly again for the rest of the night.
No historian not personally involved with the history he is writing about can approach the sense of immediacy and coherency achieved by Churchill in his war memoirs.
Dave, bleary-eyed but still reading
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