> Anfa's message reminds me that I also read this book when researching the > life of T S Eliot. It was in 1960 in Tangiers when Moran introduced WSC to > the poet and Winston didn't appear to know of him! I wonder what that says > about our man at this time of his life?
Bob: Interesting. Some light is shed on this by Professor David Dilks, in his foreword to my second quotations book, "The Definitive Wit of Winston Churchill" (autumn; see "books" on richardlangworth.com). Dilks's point is one I hadn't fully appreciated: "With a prodigious memory Churchill could master large tracts of Gibbon or Macaulay, and at the same time remain ignorant of much which someone more conventionally educated would have been expected to know. Thus he had not read many of the great novels, and had neglected many notable poets. He was after all a man of a fierce physical energy and restlessness, with endless and pressing concerns from early youth to old age. His knowledge of literature, and of many other subjects, remained patchy. What he did know he knew extremely well, thanks to that wonderful power of recall. A couple of weeks after the Prime Minister’s severe stroke in the summer of 1953, he recited to his doctor Lord Moran long extracts from a poem by Longfellow. Asked when he had last read it, Churchill replied 'About fifty years ago.' “'You will know, or Watson has written in vain, that I hold a vast store of out-of-the-way knowledge, without scientific system, but very available for the needs of my work. My mind is like a crowded box-room with packets of all sorts stowed away therein—so many that I may well have but a vague perception of what was there.' Thus Sherlock Holmes; while Churchill used to put the point more prosaically by saying that he could generally dip his bucket into the well and come up with something useful." --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ChurchillChat" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/ChurchillChat?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
