The Churchill Series – Mar. 12, 2007

(One of a series of weekday posts on the life of Winston S. Churchill.)

Dear Readers,

Most of you know historian Richard Toye and Cambridge University have just announced Toye’s “uncovered” an unpublished article which they attribute to Churchill, while acknowledging it was “ghosted.” The article dates from 1937.

In the promo and media interviews Toye all but calls Churchill an anti-Semite.

I reported and commented on Toye, Cambridge’s promo and the subsequent media frenzy in “Churchill gets Nifonged.”

The Cambridge announcement comes just days before the publication of Toye’s book dealing with the relationship between Churchill and British statesman Lloyd George.

This is not the first time Toye and Cambridge have teamed up to announce a Churchill “discovery.”

On Nov. 28, 2006, Cambridge University announced to the world:

Dr Richard Toye, a Lecturer in History at the University of Cambridge, has found that the phrase “The Gathering Storm” – used by Churchill to depict the rise of Hitler’s Germany – had in fact been conjured up by Wells decades earlier in The War Of The Worlds, which depicts an attack on Britain by Martians.

Imagine that!

Before Cambridge’s announcement I’ll bet most of you thought “the gathering storm” was a very common phrase “conjured up” for centuries by, for example, ship captains looking at menacing horizons.

Who knew it was a phrase stolen by Churchill from H. G. Wells?

I’ll bet none of you can wait to hear what Toye and Cambridge University discover about Churchill's use of the phrase “their finest hour.”

In a day or two I’ll post further concerning Toye, Cambridge and Churchill.

Meanwhile, with Cambridge’s “conjured up” assertion regarding “the gathering storm” in mind, I’m reposting the following series post which first ran on Feb. 6, 2006.

John
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On January 30, 1946, Churchill was in Miami where historian Martin Gilbert says:

(Churchill) had a long talk with Emery Reves, who before the war had insured the wide circulation of his articles throughout Europe, about the publishing aspect of his war memoirs.

"I have not forgotten what you have done for me before the war" Churchill told Reves, "and I shall want you to handle it"

Over the next decade, and more, Reves made sure that the memoirs obtained the widest possible circulation, translation and financial benefit.

Shortly after Churchill began work on his memoirs, tension developed between the two as Reves made numerous criticisms of Churchill's drafts.

Churchill, you'll recall, often said that while he liked to learn, he didn't like being taught.

But things came right in the end. Reves was even able to persuade Churchill to change the title he'd selected for the first volume. Thus "The Downward Path" became "The Gathering Storm."
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Reader's Note: Some will reasonably wonder whether Churchill actually said
"have done for me before the war" instead of "did for me before the war."

The Churchill quote, along with the rest of Gilbert's text quoted here, appears on page 864 of his Churchill: A Life.