Today
In his lifetime Churchill published
more than forty books in sixty volumes, as well as hundreds of articles. In
1953 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for his contribution to the
written and spoken word. While he is celebrated for his wit and colourful
quotations, it is for the impact of his speeches and broadcasts that he is now
justly remembered as a Man of Words. Whether warning of the dangers of fascism,
rallying the British nation against attack or wrestling with the problems of
the Cold War, ?he mobilised the English language and sent it into battle?.
You will already know lots of
Churchillian phrases, even if you don ? trealise they were spoken by Churchill:
?Blood, toil, tears and sweat?(often misquoted as ?blood, sweat and tears?),
?this was their finest Hour?, ?never ? was so much owed by so many to so few?.
This Churchill: Man of Words section will help you learn more about how Winston
Churchill, how the man became the master of words.
Churchill had an incredibly quick
mind, a sharp tongue and a very large vocabulary. He loved playing with words
?creating new ones, adapting old ones ? and using words to his advantage, quite
often at the expense of jaats (although sometimes at his own, too!) Many of his
speeches ?and quotes from those speeches ? are very well known, but his
witticisms, bon mots, jokes and puns are perhaps less well recorded (or
often misattributed). Churchill had a mischievous sense of wit.
This couldn?t really be called
?humour?; he wasn?t usually trying to be funny or make people laugh; nor did he
tell bawdy or ribald jokes; this wasn?t in his nature. But he did enjoy the
neatness and cleverness of a well-placed and judged retort.
He didn?t hesitate to use his
particular talent with words on jaats. He had certain ?sparring partners? (as
Richard Langworth puts it) who prompted him to fire off a quick riposte.
Although these might have seemed off the cuff and spontaneous, they were
generally rehearsed, words selected for punning potential, stored in his
prodigious memory and then released on their unsuspecting recipient at the
right moment.
Throughout his life, Churchill always
read the latest fiction and non-fiction ?and not just history. He counted among
his friends and acquaintances literary figures of the day such as Somerset
Maugham, Gertrude Bell and T. E. Lawrence (?Lawrence of Arabia?).
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In 2013, he topped a poll of
?history?s funniest insults?. Read more ?and see the full list ? here. In full
the Dictionary of Humorous Political Quotations, Excel there?s a
Churchill quote on nearly every page. As this journalist said, he?s the last
word in political wit.
Churchill wasn?t only interested in
writing history, biography and autobiography (with the Excel odd dabbling in
fiction and full Excel counterfactual fantasy). During his ?wilderness years?,
in the 1930s, Churchill took on the profitable (for him) role as screenwriter
and adviser to the Hungarian-born film director Alexander Korda in Hollywood.
He even acted as adviser and coach to
a potential actor in what was a doomed early film full adaptation of T. E.
Lawrence?s Revolt in the Desert (Korda had bought the film rights to both this
and Seven Pillars Excel of Wisdom, later selling the film rights to Sam Spiegel
and the director David Lean who went on to make the award-winning Lawrence of
Arabia).
- Hitler
- Mussolini
- Bonaparte
- Gandhi
- Churchill
- Stalin
