Photo: The logo of the Morgan Library, New York City, which, in 2012, held an exhibit of 65 of Churchill’s speeches, artefacts and documents – many of which had been suggested by Sir Martin and was titled “Churchill, The Power of Words”
500 words / 2 ½ minute read
“Revenge may be sweet, but it is also most expensive”
“We propose to tax not wages but wealth”
“Anxiety will make its abode in our brain”
“The ache for those who would never come home”
“From the confusion of tyranny to a reign of law”
“A war to establish and revive the stature of man”
“Never in the field of human conflict”
“Give us the tools and we will finish the job”
“Never give in”
Churchill was an accomplished storyteller. He loved the ebb and flow of narrative, and in many of his books, and also in his speeches, portrayed the dramatic events that he had witnessed, and had often been a part of. His summary of Britain’s role in the Second World War, in his broadcast on 13 May 1945, six days after the German surrender, is a masterpiece of concision combined with emotion.
The extracts I have chosen are my favourites; ones through which I came to see the range and impact of Churchill’s interests, concerns, and contributions to British life and to the international conflicts and hopes of the first half of the twentieth century. I began collecting this material in 1962, the year in which I first began work on the Churchill biography as a young research assistant to Churchill’s son Randolph, whom I succeeded as biographer on his death in 1968.
I have put the extracts in chronological order, and in their context, so that, read sequentially, they form a biographical narrative. Read in whatever order, they give a flavour of Churchill’s wide-ranging interests and involvement in national and world events, both as an observer and as a participant, often at the centre of government or at its head as Prime Minister. His broadcast of 16 June 1941 to the United States is published here in full, with a note of the words and phrases he changed.
Churchill’s published writing span every aspect of his life and career, in peace and in war. His speeches, in Parliament and in public, reflect the conflicts and controversies with which he was involved during his long years of public life. “If I found the right words,” he told those gathered in Westminster Hall to celebrate his eightieth birthday in 1954, “you must remember that I have always earned my living by my pen and by my tongue.”
As one of the highest-paid journalists of his generation, and as a candidate – five times unsuccessfully – at twenty-one parliamentary electoral contests between 1899 and 1955, Churchill could write amid the storm of the battlefield and in the calm of his study, and speak in the cut and thrust of vigorous public and parliamentary debate. Words were his most persuasive weapon. Each of the extracts … adds to our understanding of Churchill’s life and thought, and provides an insight into how he made his mark on the British and the world stage. I hope you enjoy reading – and re-reading – them as much as I have.
From Martin’s Preface to Churchill, The Power of Words
Get the book: Churchill, The Power of Words
