I am enjoying a biography of Winston Churchill (Churchill Walking With Destiny by Andrew Roberts).
Churchill received the Nobel Literature prize "for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values".
While I had read Churchill's 5 book history of the Second World War, I was not aware of just how prolific a writer he was nor that he earned most of his income by writing books (mostly non-fiction histories and biographies) as well as articles in newspapers and magazines. Roberts also says Churchill had an uncanny ability to accurately memorize long tracts of text, poems, and of course his own and other people's speeches. This man's productivity and energy were amazing and clearly he deserved that Nobel prize!
I've always had this text book image of Churchill as an effective and inspiring wartime leader who rallied the free world to defeat the Axis powers. Churchill's entire pre-Prime Minister lifetime of work prepared him for this role. Before he became Prime Minister in 1940, Churchill had what would be even for most people a very full military and political career. Through these experiences he came to know or met with many of his contemporary leaders in the British Empire and elsewhere.
Much of Churchill's strategic and tactical insights as to how wartime events might unfold and what other leaders were thinking and how they might act was critically informed by the extensive research and analysis he undertook as a writer of histories, biographies and political commentary. This work exposed and informed Churchill to great and flawed philosophies and ideas, great and notorious leaders, and forced him to critically examine and effectively explain pivotal historical events. His well developed reading, research and writing skills as well as the experience of delivering hundreds of speeches to often hostile audiences in the House of Commons and elsewhere
helped him define his unique language and speaking style and observe the power that well crafted arguments and well turned phrases can have to inform, persuade and influence people.
