The Works of WSC
A guide to the Churchill canon
Articles
Affiliated sites"Authors are the happy people in the world, whose work is pleasure".
Speech to the Authors Club, 1906
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"Books in all their variety are often the means by which civilisation may be carried triumphantly forward".
Wartime Documentary Film, 1941
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"For my part, I consider that it will be found much better by all parties to leave the past to history, especially as I propose to write that history myself."
House of Commons. 23rd January 1948
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"Give me the facts, and I will twist them the way I want to suit my argument".
To Maurice Ashley during research for Marlborough
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"I affected a combination of the styles of Macaulay and Gibbon, the staccato antithesis of the former and the rolling sentences and genetival endings of the latter; and I stuck in a bit of my own from time to time."
Describing the development of his early writing style.
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"I must... at the outset disclaim the position of the historian. It is not for me with my record and special point of view to pronounce a final conclusion. That must be left to others and to other times. But I intend to set forth what I believe to be fair and true: and I present it as a contribution to history of which note should be taken together with other accounts".
Writing about The World Crisis
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"I would make boys all learn English; and then I would let the clever ones learn Latin as an honour and Greek as a treat. But the only thing I would whip them for is not knowing English. I would whip them hard for that".
Thoughts and Adventures
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"If you cannot read [your books], at any rate handle them and, as it were, fondle them. Peer into them. Let them fall open where they will...Set them back on your shelves with your own hands. Arrange them on your own plan, so that if you do not know what is in them, you at least know where they are. If they cannot be your friends, let them at any rate be your aquaintances. If they cannot enter the circle of your life, do no deny them at least a nod of recognition".
Thoughts and Adventures - 1932
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"It is a contribution to history strung upon a fairly strong thread of personal reminiscence. It does not pretend to be a comprehensive record; but it aims at helping to disentangle from an immense amount of material the crucial issues and cardinal decisions".
Preface to the abridged edition of The World Crisis, 1930
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"It is a privilege to sit at a table on a sunny morning and feel that there are four hours of uninterrupted security, with plenty of white paper and a pen, away from the vexations of daily life".
Speech to the Authors Club, 1906
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"It must not be supposed that I expect everybody to agree with what I say, still less that I only write what will be popular. I give my testimony according to the lights I follow".
Preface to "The Second World War", March 1948
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"Look at it Charles. It opens like an angel's wings." Lord Moran speaking of the first edition of "The History of the English Speaking Peoples" from "Churchill: The Struggle for Survival".
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"No one can set himself to the writing of a page of English composition without feeling a real pleasure in the medium in which he works, the flexibility and the profoundness of his noble mother tongue".
Speech to the Authors Club, 1906
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"Short words are best, and the old words when short are best of all".
London, November 2nd, 1949
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"The essential structure of the ordinary British sentence... is a noble thing".
Thoughts and Adventures
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"The novel was finished in about two months. It was eventually published in Macmillan's Magazine under the title of Savrola, and being subsequently reprinted in various editions, yielded in all over several years about seven hundred pounds. I have consistently urged my friends to abstain from reading it."
My Early Life - 1930
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"The preface to the first edition in 1900 submitted the book 'with considerable trepidation to the judgement or clemency of the public'. The intervening fifty-five years have somewhat dulled though certainly not changed my sentiments on this point".
From the preface to the 1956 edition of 'Savrola'.
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"The publication of the book [The Story of the Malakand Field Force] will certainly be the most noteworthy act of my life. Up to date (of course). By its reception - I shall measure the chances of any possible success in the world".
Letter to his mother, January 26th 1898
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"There is a good saying to the effect that when a new book appears one should read an old one. As an author, I would not recommend too strict an adherence to this saying".
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"Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with it is a toy and and amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster, and fling him about to the public."
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"Writing a long and substantial book is like having a friend and companion at your side, to whom you can always turn for comfort and amusement, and whose society becomes more attractive as a new and widening field of interest is lighted in the mind".
The Gathering Storm
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A bothersome author once asked Churchill "Have you read my latest book?". To which Churchill replied "No, I only read for pleasure or profit."
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As Dr Johnson says, "No one but a blockhead ever wrote except for money".
Letter to his mother, Oct 25th 1897
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History with its flickering lamp stumbles along the trail of the past, trying to reconstruct its scenes, to revive its echoes, and rekindle with pale gleams the passion of former days.
House of Commons - November 12th, 1940
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It is only by publishing certain documents and telegrams which I have written myself and for which I bear the prime responsibility, that I can deal with the lies and fictions which have ruled so long and which I have borne all these years without making any reply, while every other version has been put before the public.
Letter to Andrew Bonar Law (3 March, 1923) regarding The World Crisis
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