Thoughts and adventures : Churchill reflections on spies, cartoons, flying and the future

"More than any other book by Winston Churchill, the wide-ranging Thoughts and Adventures allows the contemporary reader to grasp the extraordinary variety and depth of Churchill's mature thoughts on the questions, both grave and gay, facing modern man. Churchill begins by asking what it would be like to live your life over again and ends by describing his love affair with painting. In between, he touches on subjects as diverse as spies, cartoons, submarines, elections, flying, and the future. Reading these essays - originally dictated late at night in the 1920s in his study, and by which he was able to support his family and live like a lord without inherited wealth - is like being invited to dinner at Churchill's country seat at Chartwell, where the soup was limpid, Pol Roger Champagne flowed, the pudding had a theme, and Churchill entertained lucky visitors with vivid conversation. This ISI Books edition, with a new introduction and notes by James W. Muller, Academic Chairman of the Churchill Centre, recovers Churchill's unforgettable table talk for a new generation of readers." -- Publisher's description The fourth volume in this collection of the Nobel Prize–winning prime minister’s essays and journalism showcases his wide-ranging interests and talents. Legendary politician and military strategist Winston S. Churchill was a master not only of the battlefield, but of the page and the podium. Over the course of forty books and countless speeches, broadcasts, news items and more, he addressed a country at war and at peace, thrilling with victory but uneasy with its shifting role in global politics. In 1953, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for “his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values.” During his lifetime, he enthralled readers and brought crowds roaring to their feet; in the years since his death, his skilled writing has inspired generations of eager history buffs. This collection of 1920s–30s magazine and newspaper articles convey the extraordinary variety and depth of Churchill’s thoughts on the questions, both lofty and quotidian, facing humankind. From oil painting to learning to fly an airplane, from cartoons to commanding a frontline infantry battalion in World War One, these essays bring the great man’s wit and intellect to life. With a new introduction and notes by James W. Muller, academic chairman of the International Churchill Society, this edition recovers Churchill’s unforgettable table talk for a new generation of readers.