Feature Article on Winston Churchill. Topic: WAR
& PEOPLE
Written by David Lodge in March,
1997
SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL - A LEGEND IN HIS OWN TIME -- 1874-1965...Pg 2 |
|
| I would, however, be
proven wrong. My cousins, the American people, whom I would grow to love dearly, were
destined, at some future time and place, to provide the means to support my redoubtable
quest to rescue my beloved England from the edges of its greatest peril. In later years,
men and women would say, that at my birth, I was ordained by God to lead this great
crusade against the forces of evil. How will I rise above the expectations of those who believe in me? Will I be a great general like Wellington, a politician and statesman like William Pitt, an adventurer and poet like Sir Philip Sidney or an author who speaks to the minds of men? No, I shall be an author. My vision predicts a proliferation of book credits, a novel Savrola (1899), the only one I would write, joined by a library of tomes on real-life action beginning with my first book, The History of the Malakand Field Force (1898). Others would be The River War (1899), London to Ladysmith, Ian Hamilton’s March (1900), Lord Randolph Churchill (1906), My African Journal (1908) and The People’s Rights (1909). After World War I, four volumes of The World in Crisis (1923), Thoughts and Adventures (1932), Great Contemporaries (1937), and While England Slept (1938). After World War II, Painting as a Pastime, the first volume of six on The Second World War (1948), and two of four volumes on History of the English-Speaking Peoples (1956). It’s quite clear, I shall be a writer; and my efforts will bring the bestowment on me in 1956 of the creme de la creme of awards, the Nobel Prize for literature, and plaudits from around the world. But, for now, I was barely a few minutes old and this omniscient quality of mine would not endure its ultimate challenge until I was sixty five years old. As I asked myself, was I born to fulfill a mission, my mother proudly announced my name, "You shall be Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, but those who love you will affectionately call you Winnie." Her soft and loving voice transcended all my thoughts, leaving me, once again, at the beginning of my life. [ Back ] [ Next ] [ Up ] [ New Search ] |
Winston
Churchill’s father, Randolph Henry |
Winston
Churchill’s mother, |
|
