I was tempted into buying this book half-price in a discount bookstore this week : 'In Command Of History' by Professor David Reynolds ( Allen Lane, 2004 ). It is a scholarly study of the circumstances and writing of Churchill's six-volume war history. Although I wouldn't recommend it to the general reader, I'm finding it quite compelling to read. It's fascinating to discover how Churchill's book was constructed, which parts were actually written by researchers, and - especially - which parts were 'edited' by Churchill to highlight certain points, or to conveniently gloss over others. For any serious student of Churchill, and the way in which Churchill has influenced the way in which history is portrayed, it's essential stuff.
Speaking of Churchill, I have to recommend the new Churchil Museum at the Cabinet War Rooms in London. I managed to get myself in for free last week, and it is very, very impressive.
Martin - sounds like a good read. There is a chapter in Brian Loring Villa's book on dippe on the problem face by churchill when he came to write the section on the operation. I might have to talk to SWMBO and buy this one
That sounds great, there is a Churchill Museum there now as well!? I have been meaning revisit the CWR for some time, and I'm heading to London over Easter together with my fiance and her sister + boyfriend. I'm the only one who has been to the CWR, and that was many many moons ago. Only other scheduled stop is some sort of spy/spook museum that I vaguely recall reading about, as the sisters boyfriend is in the intelligence service over here... (well, only other scheduled stop aside from pubs and Foyle's that is, heh)
I'd certainly like to read that book, being that Churchill is my favourite History author and one of the favourites Literature authors as well. Maybe his research is out of date, biased or incomplete, but there's no other Historian with the same masterly use of the English language. Maybe except Rudyard Kipling, who wrote the official regimental history of the Royal Dublin Fusileers (have anyone read this book?).
This really is turning out to be a fascinating read. Very interesting to see how Churchill 'tweaked' various things.... Also illuminating for me as literature. I had always preferred the literary style of'The World Crisis' as opposed to '2nd WW' and had assumed this was because Churchill was much older by that time. Certainly '2nd WW' is more 'flat' to read. It turns out that Churchill had a number of eminent helpers, several of whom actually wrote quite large parts of '2nd WW'. With 'World Crisis', you are reading Churchill.....
There was a documentary not long back on Churchils life on one of the Sky channels, fair bit on his writing of the volumes in question and how they were wrote, this also pointed to a certain glossing over certain areas. But was fascinating as Martin says in how it explained the number of people, researchers and typists, etc, who took part in its writing. Still though I find the appendixes of all these volumes to be excellent reading, but even there you can at times read between the lines and think maybe he was being a bit economical with the truth at times...Still some of the best works ever written none the less.
