- Churchill, Winston S.
Thoughts and Adventures.
Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, [1932] 2009.
ISBN 978-1-935191-46-9.
-
Among the many accomplishments of Churchill's long and
eventful life, it is easy to forget that in the years
between the wars he made his living primarily as a
writer, with a prolific output of books,
magazine articles, and newspaper columns. It was in
this period of his life that he achieved the singular
mastery of the English language which would serve him
and Britain so well during World War II and which would
be recognised by the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953.
This collection of Churchill's short nonfiction was
originally published in 1932 and is now available
in a new edition, edited and with extensive annotations
by James W. Muller. Muller provides abundant footnotes
describing people, events, and locations which would have
been familiar to Churchill's contemporary audience but
which readers today might find obscure. Extensive end
notes detail the publication history of each of the
essays collected here, and document textual differences
among the editions. Did you know that one of Churchill's
principal markets across the Atlantic in the 1920s
was Cosmopolitan?
This is simply a delicious collection of writing.
Here we have Churchill recounting his adventures and
misadventures in the air, a gun battle with anarchists on
the streets of London, life in the trenches after he left
the government and served on the front in World War I,
his view of the partition of Ireland, and much more.
Some of the essays are light, such as his take on political
cartoons or his discovery of painting as a passion and
pastime, but even these contain beautiful prose and
profound insights. Then there is Churchill the prophet of
human conflict to come. In “Shall We All Commit
Suicide?”, he writes (p. 264):
Then there are Explosives. Have we reached the end? Has
Science turned its last page on them? May there not be methods
of using explosive energy incomparably more intense than anything
heretofore discovered? Might not a bomb no bigger than an orange
be found to possess a secret power to destroy a whole block of
buildings—nay, to concentrate the force of a thousand
tons of cordite and blast a township at a stroke? Could not
explosives of even the existing type be guided automatically
in flying machines by wireless or other rays, without a human
pilot, in ceaseless procession upon a hostile city, arsenal,
camp, or dockyard?
Bear in mind that this was published in 1924. In 1931,
looking “Fifty Years Hence”, he envisions (p. 290):
Wireless telephones and television, following naturally upon
their present path of development, would enable their owner to
connect up with any room similarly installed, and hear and take
part in the conversation as well as if he put his head through
the window. The congregation of men in cities would become
superfluous. It would rarely be necessary to call in person on
any but the most intimate friends, but if so, excessively rapid
means of communication would be at hand. There would be no more
object in living in the same city with one's neighbour than there
is to-day in living with him in the same house. The cities and
the countryside would become indistinguishable. Every home
would have its garden and its glade.
It's best while enjoying this magnificent collection not to dwell
on whether there is a single living politician of
comparable stature who thinks so profoundly on so broad a
spectrum of topics, or who can expound upon them to a popular
audience in such pellucid prose.
June 2011 