What kind of a People do they think we are? - Winston Churchill

"By Ships Alone"...advisers should express opinions onlywhen invited to do so. Another dissenterwas Sir Thomas Mackenzie, who implieddiat Churchill was responsible for die advisersnot voicing dieir opinions. A thirdmember, Liberal MP Walter Roch, deliveredan extensive dissenting memorandum,stating that "Churchill should haveconsulted die Board of Admiralty," that"he failed to present fully to die WarWOODS CORNERDavid Druckman & Mark WeberA Trove of ChurchillianaDavid Druckman has brought to ourattention several collections of well knownworks which include more Churchill materialthan the casual browser may realize.The Anglo-Saxon ReviewLady Randolph Churchill's fabuloushardbound literary magazine sold for$5 a copy and lasted ten issues (1899-1901). The Anglo-Saxon featured the bestliterary and society writers of its age. Eachcopy was bound in exquisitely tooledleather. The magazine is known to containan important, rarely seen Churchillwork, "British Cavalry" (volume 8). Butthere is also an unsigned favorable pieceabout Churchill (by his mother?) in volume3, and Lady Randolph's letters fromthe Boer War, sent from her Hospital shipthe Maine (volume 5).The Book of Public SpeakingFirst Edition. London: Caxton1915. This excellent collection of greatspeeches is a mine of material that can stillhelp guide and instruct public speakers byillustrating how the masters of oratory doit. The book is commonly seen in five volumes,but there is also a seven-volumeedition which contains seven speeches byChurchill, one by Lord Randolph, andperorations by Theodore Roosevelt, MarkTwain, Kipling, Gladstone, Dickens,William Jennings Bryan, Washington,Woods Corner is a bibliophile's column namedin memory of Frederick Woods, the first bibliographerof Winston S. Churchill.Council the opinions of his naval advisers,and this failure was due to his ownstrong personal opinion in favour of anaval attack."In this writers opinion, Churchill'saction showed initiative and leadership inthe absence any leadership from a jointmilitary and naval planning staff, whichshould have been tasked by the WarCouncil to investigate, plan and supportthe operation. $Lincoln and many more.Public speakers will also appreciatethe thick collectionsof segues, jokes and punchlines contained in volume 7. Not commonlyseen, but not expensive, this workis a superb addition to the comprehensiveChurchill library. Here is a list of theChurchill speeches by volume/page number.*Speeches with asterisk do not appearin Winston S. Churchill: His CompleteSpeeches, edited by Robert Rhodes James,New York: 1974. (Volume:page)1:295* Welsh Characters (IMar 1911)2:83* The Press, lOJun 19093:32 Liberalism vs. Socialism, 4May 19085:64 Deny, llFeb 19135:151 Naval Volunteers, 14Dec 19126:235* Inauguration of a New Building,2Feb 19146:312* Responsibilities of Office, 20Feb 1912About BooksOur column on news and travels inthe bibliophile world by former editor DaltonNewfield was always eagerly greeted;herewith it revives with the help of MarkWeber, who with his wife Avril travels toEngland regularly in search of Churchill.In April we drove north towardsCambridge, with our first stop at the oldbookstore in Saffron Walden. Nothingscarce or expensive was sighted, but thesun appeared for a delightful pub lunch ata tiny village just north of Bishops Stortford,where again a listing in The GoodPub Guide proved accurate. Later that afternoon,we were fortunate to visit DavidThomas, author of the book on Churchilland his Parliamentary constituency, Memberfor Woodford, who is better known as anaval historian. He has published a dozentitles over 40 years. We had a few of hisFINEST HOUR 112/48early works and were pleased to havethem signed. David was also active inWoodford politics and had delightfulmemorabilia from a time when the Toryfaithful considered it a national priority toensure that WSC was returned to theHouse each election.The next day we drove south towardsPortsmouth in order to view someChurchill books at a small local auctionhouse. Their condition was poor, so wepassed; they went instead to an obsessivepurchaser for whom the buying experienceseems to count more than the worthof the goods. At Portsmouth's W Robinson,the books were stacked in great pileson the floor, obstructing access to manyof the shelves. Nonetheless, careful diggingin an aisle too narrow for turning resultedin a boxful of treasure, the best ofwhich was a volume V of the Official Biography.After another yummy publunch, we called in at the home of L. L.(Tom) Thomas, whose house is named"Savrola." Tom has a fantastic collectionof Churchilliana, books, and magazines,so it's always a treat to see his gems.The Sunday bookfairs were busybut the offerings uninteresting. Onedealer tipped me to The Second World Warin a special binding. I found these under adealer's table, already sold before the fairhad opened. It was the special publisher'sfull black leather bindings, one of 100presentation sets. This dealer had obviouslynot read the editor's Connoisseur'sGuide, as he had priced them at just £80.They had been acquired from an old ladywho had worked at Cassell's for 50 years.A day was spent in Central London.A pleasant lunch in the City withChurchill Center governor and associateDavid Boler preceded an afternoon visitto consign a few books to Sotheby's. Welearned that there was not a political salethis summer, but the July Sale of EnglishLiterature did have a selection ofChurchill material.We all thought that the Official Biographywas completely out of print.Heinemann must have discovered someold copies in a warehouse, because we discoveredsome brand new copies of volumeIV in a remainder shop on CharingCross Road. Unfortunately they had onlytwo left when we got there. I offered tobuy as many more as he could obtain, buthave not heard from the proprietor. $5