Churchill the Historian
Winston Churchill wrote history with an eye to his eventual place in it, David Reynolds tells us. His idea of history also inspired his making of it.
Winston Churchill's reputation rests above all on his leadership in the Second World War, often described as Britain's 'finest hour'. Yet Churchill himself coined that phrase. It serves to remind us that he not only made history but also wrote it: indeed he regarded the making and the writing as inseparable.
Politics was Churchill's life: he was a Member of Parliament almost without a break from 1900 to 1964. Yet he earned his living as an author. With no estates, business or legal practice to support his self-indulgent lifestyle, he paid the bills (or tried to) by a steady stream of articles and books. Some of his output was pretty lightweight: his articles on Great Stories Of the World Retold (1932-33) are not exactly classics of literature. On the other hand, the essays in Great Contemporaries (1937) still retain their sparkle and fascination.
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