Layout 8 - Winston Churchill

ole of Eisenhower’s wartime chauffeur
and mistress Kay Summersby, as well as
Lady Randolph Churchill.
Although it was a wonderful
honor to welcome Gregory Peck (and
amusing to watch people’s reactions as
he walked with us through the ship’s
corridors to our dinner), it was a sad
night too, for Lee was swollen with
medications and barely able to speak.
Her husband, the British film producer
Kip Gowans, made sure to talk to him
in advance, for Greg hadn’t seen Lee in
years and would have been unprepared
for the change her illness had
wrought—which, great man that he
was, Gregory Peck never hinted he had
observed.
We played excerpts from “Jennie”
before giving her the award, which had
all the impact of an Oscar Night, and I
noticed when the lights came back on
that she was in tears.
“I was beautiful then,” she said
wistfully.
“But Lee,” I said, “you still have
those eyes.” ,
“There cannot be another American actress so well
suited, by her beauty, her high spirits, her intelligence,
and by a rare quality which I would call a depth of
womanliness, to play the mother of Winston Churchill.”
—GREGORY PECK, BLENHEM AWARD PRESENTATION TO LEE REMICK
L-R: Event organizer Merry Alberigi, Gregory Peck, Richard Langworth, Lee Remick, 4 May 1991
Students’ Choice: The Five Best Recent Churchill Books
Are you asked to recommend
Churchill books for young
people Here are the choices
of undergradautes themselves,
under an expert teacher.
JOHN P. ROSSI
Over the years I have taught a
college course on Winston
Churchill, one of the few historical
figures students seem to know something
about. They may recognize his
name, have a vague idea of what he
looks like, and know that he had something
important to do with World War
II—and that’s something.
The course is usually well subscribed.
Students come to admire
Churchill’s eccentricities, his love of the
good life, painting, his “siren suits,” his
___________________________________
Dr. Rossi is Professor Emeritus of History at
La Salle University in Philadelphia. His articles
and reviews have appeared in periodicals
including The Kenyon Review, The Review of
Politics, The Washington Post Book World, and
The Contemporary Review (UK).
bricklaying at Chartwell, and the way
he wrote, dictating from his “stand-up
desk.” They are impressed by his axiom
“Never Give In,” which I highlight in
my syllabus. They come to see
Churchill as “real,” not just a figure on
the History Channel.
My course reading list for the sessions
is built around Martin Gilbert’s
official biography, supplemented with
specialized studies of his life. I exclude
biographies other than Gilbert’s because
they tend either to be bland, repetitious
or grossly overwritten, as in the case of
Roy Jenkins’ or William Manchester’s
massive tomes. It is interesting to note
the books students themselves enjoy.
Here are my students’ five most popular
recent books.
Geoffrey Best, Churchill: A Study in
Greatness (London: Hambledon and
London, 2001; paperback, New York:
Oxford University Press, 2003).
This is by far their choice as the
best overall study of Churchill’s career.
In a little more than 300 pages Best
produces an overview that is vividly
FINEST HOUR 148 / 39
written, while distilling the latest
research on Churchill’s long career.
Best admires Churchill but avoids
hero worship, recognizing what he sees
as arrogance, selfishness and stubbornness.
Yet he concludes by holding WSC
among “the great men I had always
supposed to be there.”
Best stresses the positive influence
of Clementine, concluding that her
judgment on personalities was usually
better than Winston’s. She distrusted
Lord Beaverbrook and Lord
Birkenhead, whom her husband >>