Anyone reading this knows where they were on 9/11/01. A diminishing number remember where they were on 1/30/65—the day we said farewell to Winston Churchill.
For me it was a life-changing experience. Suddenly, unforgettably, on my flickering, black and white TV screen in Staten Island, N.Y., the huge void of England’s grandest cathedral filled with *The Battle Hymn of the Republic*. He was, we were reminded, half-American, an honorary citizen by Act of Congress. That day was the start of my 50-year career in search of Churchill—of what his greatest biographer, Sir Martin Gilbert, described as “labouring in the vineyard.” After the funeral I picked up *The Gathering Storm, *the first volume of his World War II memoirs. I was snared by what Robert Pilpel called his “roast beef and pewter phrases.” It’s biased, as Churchill admitted—“This is not history; this is my case.” But it is ordered so as to put you at his side for the “great climacterics” that made us what we are today. Read more: http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/reflections-churchill-s-funeral_824348.html -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ChurchillChat" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/churchillchat. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
