Review of Churchill Style
Barry Singer
2012, 240 pp.
(Published in a slightly altered format in Gentleman's Gazette Ezine)
Winston Churchill is both one of history’s greatest and most
stylistically evocative figures. The
British statesman served in numerous government posts of one of the world’s
great imperial powers at key moments during the course of the 20th
century. He was called to head the
Admiralty (navy) during World War One, serve as Secretary of State for the
Colonies during the creation of the Irish Free State, take charge of the
Exchequer (treasury) during the tempestuous 1920s and, finally, to reside at Number
10 Downing Street as Prime Minister during World War II (a post to which he
would be recalled during the Cold War). He
also wrote numerous books that included several multiple volume histories and
delivered countless rhetorical masterpieces in the House of Commons. But then there is also the exuberant
Churchill of great style, the Churchill that was “easily satisfied with the
best” in creature comforts ranging from cigars, scotch, automobiles, country
homes, food and champagne, right down to his silk underwear and pajamas.
We often portray style and substance as being in tension if
not outright incompatible, but Barry Singer’s Churchill Style: The Art of Being Winston Churchill illustrates how
Churchill’s lifestyle furthered his substantial career. As a bonus, the book’s details add a good
deal of gloss to the Churchill story, helping us to feel as if we know the
great man just a little bit more intimately, just as we know our friends by the
brand of beer they drink or the type of car they drive and the other everyday
items they love that we come to associate with them. It’s as if Yousuf Karsh’s famous photograph
of Churchill had blossomed into glorious color.
 |
| Karsh's famous photo |
And much of Churchill
Style does concern itself with the items most famously associated with Churchill:
the ever present cigars, bow ties, homburgs, dark suits, and whiskey and sodas,
the seemingly endless amounts of cognac and champagne, and his ever present, trademark
“V for Victory” hand sign. Singer, the
owner of the Churchill-focused Chartwell Books, covers Churchill’s homes and
his past times, such as his polo playing, painting and reading. Readers will be treated to the intimate
details of Churchill’s life, often hinted at in other works, via such exhibits
as railroad service instructions telling stewards precisely how to stock Sir
Winston’s private railway car (canapés, coffee, tea, Johnny Walker Black,
Martell extra cognac) and serve his breakfast (tea, juice, eggs and sliced
meat), detailed book orders, and the ubiquitous tailors’ bills that were an
ever present irritant in the life of a Victorian or Edwardian gentleman.
 |
| One of WCs many "Siren Suits" |
Churchill’s wardrobe is also covered in extensive detail. Singer explains the origins of Churchill’s preference for bow ties, relates the criticism Churchill received from Tailor and Cutter magazine for his choice of wedding apparel and explains his penchant for the odd looking “siren suits” (front zippered jump suits). A full blown “Churchillian Shopping Guide” is appended for those who wish to purchase their clothes and accessories from those same shops frequented by Churchill that remain in existence.
These are, however, only the small and superficial elements
of a much broader and meaningful conception of style, namely the approach by
which Churchill rose to power in just the right place and at the right time to
play perhaps THE critical role in the history of the 20th
century. For Churchill, style and substance
were not competing elements or even in tension.
Churchill’s style was a vital aspect of his very being and it is the
book’s subtitle, The Art of Being Winston
Churchill that best conveys the book’s principle value by describing how
Churchill’s lifestyle served to sustain his meteoric, if highly volatile,
political career and the writing that ultimately earned him a Nobel Prize.
Picasso himself remarked that Churchill could have earned a
living by his landscapes. For Churchill,
however, painting provided a much needed psychological break from the burdens
of leadership. He even went so far as
to claim that he couldn't have born the strain without painting as one form of
self-expression that he found necessary to live. Less well known among Churchill’s past times
was his passion for horses, both in the form of playing polo and owning race
horses. He also did not shy from manual
labor despite his illustrious upbringing, and was proud that his brick laying
skills developed to the point of earning membership in a bricklayers’ union. The never ending projects undertaken to
improve Chartwell, his country home, were also doubtlessly a great source of
diversion and stress relief.
 |
| Chartwell: Churchill's country estate and home base |
Singer does not neglect the other vital roles that Chartwell
played in his career. A day away from
Chartwell was wasted according to Churchill, and it was both the center of his
political life as well as his retreat from it.
A decaying structure dating back to the Elizabethan period, Chartwell
was a money pit that helped keep Churchill close to bankruptcy for much of his
life. As Singer puts it, “His singular
gift was a stalwart ability to live as he wished, even if it was often beyond
his means.” Yet, it was the need to
finance the lifestyle that Chartwell entailed that drove much of Churchill’s
journalism and writing. If necessity is
the mother of invention, Chartwell certainly played a major role in Churchill’s
literary output.
To be clear, one does not have to emulate Churchill’s
particular lifestyle to lead a life of substantial accomplishment. For at the end of the day Winston Churchill’s
style was more than a mere accumulation of homes, horses and autos. The cigars and brandies were, in fact, mere accouterments and a fascinating diversion for readers. At its heart, writes Singer, the essence of Churchill’s
style lay not in mere things but in “the ambition, the energy, the
resourcefulness and the boundless self-confidence…his infuriating conviction he
was bound for greatness, as well as fearlessness in pursuing it…” It was these last elements that allowed him
to survive political catastrophes that would have felled a lesser man. His career could well have been ended
(undeservedly) by the failed Dardanelles campaign in 1915, with which he was
closely associated or as a result of the decision to return Britain to the gold
standard, an ill-fated endeavor he oversaw as Chancellor but of which he did
not approve. As a result his career was
viewed as being in such a shambles that when asked by Stalin himself about
Churchill’s political future in 1932, his nemesis, Lady Astor, replied simply,
“Churchill? Oh, he’s finished.”
 |
| Nancy Astor: Churchill's bete noir |
Diverse audiences will find much to enjoy in Churchill Style. While it is not the ideal volume for a reader
wishing to read only a single book about Churchill, it will serve to whet the
appetite and make most neophytes wish for more.
Alternatively, dedicated Churchillians will revel in Singer’s numerous
details about Churchill’s personal life and the list of Churchill’s chief purveyors
still in operation should they wish to imitate the great man’s lifestyle. All readers will appreciate Singer’s highly
intelligent observations about how Churchill’s style contributed to, and was
ultimately an integral part of his brilliant career, putting to rest any notion
that one need choose between style and substance.
 |
| Churchill waves to the crowd outside Buckingham Palace after the German surrender |
No comments:
Post a Comment