The Greatness of Winston Churchill

"We are all worms, but I do believe that I am a glow-worm." Churchill

When Churchill was 17 years old, he wrote a letter saying that someday the British Empire would be under attack and London would be attacked badly, but he would save the empire. He was no prophet and didn’t make many religious pronouncements, but this was the most prophetic thing about his life. By the time he died in 1965,  after a very long life, Churchill was the hero of the empire. He was 90 years old.

This book tells the story of Winston Churchill in an upbeat way that keeps you reading. Over 1,000 pages long, but don’t worry, the writing is so good you won’t notice the length. Churchill inherited a prominent family name yet the name did not swallow him. In fact, he was one of the rare kinds that increased the prestige of an already prestigious family name. he stood on the shoulders of his ancestors, rather than just stand there, he became a new pillar that extended the prestige of the family name. After Churchill, the “Winstons” could no longer be just dukes and Sire.

He was a man of many faults. He was too confident. He talked too much. He was never considerate of how others thought of him. He was abrasive, nonchalant, and someone you would call an idiot. And he felt his ideas were superior to that of others. You can’t tell him “No”. Yet, as one contemporary said, “The first time you meet Winston Churchill you see all his faults, and then the rest of your life you spend discovering his virtues”.

For virtues, he had many. He was courageous, loved his family, and loved the British Empire. One time, Churchill and his companions were captured in a war in South Africa but this guy would not stay a prisoner, he escaped, even when his other companions refused to join in the escape plot. Andrew Roberts goes on to say that if Churchill had anything close to a religion, then the empire was his religion. Indeed, Churchill considered his primary duty to be that of preserving the empire. He was always ahead of his contemporaries in understanding trends, but he could not see the trend that empire was becoming a dirty thing. Even when everyone saw it, Churchill did not.

As a boy, his father didn’t express so much confidence in him. The rest of his life was spent proving his father wrong and in old age, he had a dream in which he met his father and they had a conversation over which Churchill told the father the empire was saved. This was after the Second World War.

Andrew Roberts titled this biography “Walking With Destiny”. The way Andrew saw it, and Churchill did so too, was that all of Winston Churchill's lifetime experience was a preparation for his leadership during the Second World War. When you read this, you won’t disagree. It appears so. He was a man of destiny. Churchill was born, bred, and prepared for that moment. And indeed, he was ready.

When the time came, his contemporaries knew that he was the man to lead. He was not voted by the electorates, but selected by a few men of power. Andrew says he wasn’t selected, he ceased the premiership. Whatever happened, when the moment came, everyone knew he was the man for this hour, and he understood and accepted this. For a thousand generations, Brits will be grateful to him.

Churchill led the country through the war and like he predicted, sorry, not predicted, as he declared, they came out victorious. Of course, he used ammunition, bombs, tanks, espionage, etc to win the war. But to me, the most important things he used were his words. With words, he helped the British see that they could win even when all around them was falling apart, and with words he roused a nation to stand for itself. Blessed are nations that have Churchill as their leader in times of crisis.

He knew how to use words. Most of his earnings in life were from the things he wrote and said. He was witty and always spot-on. I want to be as witty as he was.

A cardinal sin in my book is the sin of colonialism. We who hail from colonial countries cannot forget colonialize or even glamorize it. Churchill stands up there on page one of my accused criminals. This book sought to explain some of his views, but still, they weren’t enough. Churchill still stands guilty. The evidence is enough to convict him. I understand him better, but he must continue to carry the banner I’ve placed on his head “Guilty of Colonialism”. One episode that Andrew Roberts sought to shed light on was the Bengal famine of 1943. Andrew offers a defense for Churchill. My response to this is simply that if India (which Bengal was part of) was a free country, its leaders would have pursued their interests and done all they could to stop the famine. It would be the leader's top priority, unlike the way it was ONE of Churchill’s priorities. Freedom for countries is always best.

By the time I finished reading this book, I understood Churchill more. I came into it with a slight disregard for Churchill. I left with admiration for him. The greatness of Winston Churchill will be repeated for a thousand generations.

This was an enjoyable read about an interesting man.