Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill
Gretchen Rubin (Reviewed by The Editor - Rebecca Brown)
2003 Ballantine Books
ISBN: 0345450477
A Brief Account of a Long Life. Born after Winston Churchill had died, this author wanted to know who was this warrior, writer, genius & crank.
Like no other portrait of its famouse subject, Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill is a dazzling display of facts more improbable than fiction, with penetrating insights & vivid anecdotes that make Churchill accessible & meaningful to 21st century readers who never knew him.
“...And so this life of Churchill is irregular; it dwells on some topics and omits others. I have good precendent for my method. Churchil, whose lack of university education didn't stop him from writing biographies and histories, wrote of his History of the English-Speaking Peoples, 'This book does not seek to rival the works of professional historians. It aims rather to present a personal view.'” (Page 10)
& that it does! I learnt more in one paragraph than in all the history books, about this childhood (WWII) icon whose words I had heard on the radio, over which my parents often argued. I like the way Gretchen Rubin balances each aspect of this larger-than-life patriarch of a time long ago.
Lots of Winston Churchill quotes as well as from those who have written about him while he was alive & after. Much detail too, about his beginnings & the span of his long life. Complete with a superb Notes section & Index.
Forty short chapters ranging from Liberty's Champion to Genius with Words to the Painter. From his emotional aspects of Disdain, Belligerence, & Imperialist. From Churchill in Symbols, as a Spendthrift, & in Tears. From Conflicting Views of the man to his Island's Story to Churchill and Hitler. Snippets about Churchill as a Husband, Father & Hero, & so much more!
“Winston Churchill died on January 24, 1965, at age ninety, and in a rare honor, received a state funeral. Hundreds of thousands of people stood in line for hours to pay their respects to the man who'd done so much, in so many capacities, for his country...” (pp 18-19) I was one of those who queued in the cold. Reviewing this lively book about this huge presence in my life has been a treasure of memories.
If you've ever wondered about the legend who was a young man during Queen Victoria's reign, gallivanting around India & South Africa; who was a politician most of his life & led Britain through two world wars & her “finest hour”; who met with dreadful disasters in public life, & whose private life was both ordinary & extra-ordinary; who invented the V for Victory sign, smoked like a chimney & drank like a fish (so they say!); who made cigars & the boiler suit famous; who first coined the phrase “iron curtain”, & wrote the hilarious riposte which I often quote -- “...this is nonesense up with which I shall not put!”...then Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill is just the ticket for you!
Refreshing, intuitive, informative & entertaining! Very well done!
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