Friday, August 24, 2018

Reading Churchill in London

Where we have been staying there are a few books, among them the six volumes of Churchill's history The Second World War. I have dipped into it here and there, and found in the first volume
I had arranged at the beginning of 1931 to undertake a considerable lecture tour in the United States, and travelled to New York. Here I suffered a serious accident, which nearly cost me my life. On December 13, when on my way to visit Mr. Bernard Baruch, I got out of my car on the wrong side, and walked across Fifth Avenue without bearing in mind the opposite rule of the road which prevails in America, or the red lights, then unused in Britain. There was a shattering collision. For two months I was a wreck.
After several days trying to remember which way to look, I can see how this might have happened. I don't remember this incident from Roy Jenkins's biography of Churchill.

Yesterday afternoon, we had wine and snacks in a hotel bar in Holborn. This had many bookshelves When first seated I noticed the cover of a volume ten yards away, and walked over to check it. It was, as I had supposed, a volume of Churchill's history, but in a different binding. I wonder where I knew this binding from--a relative's house or a school library?

4 comments:

  1. How long are you there? As term is only just starting I imagine it may be too early for any choral singing in Westminster Cathedral by Lucy's charges, but, if you are around and would fancy such a thing, I will ask her, as she teaches at the Westminster Cathedral Choir School. It is a lovely experience.

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  2. We are home now. As I have just explained to my stepmother, we stayed at some distance from Westminster Cathedral and just down the road from St. James's Spanish Place. (Which is no longer on Spanish Place, rather on George Street). I wondered whether Lucy still taught at the school. Maybe we'll make it there on another visit.

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    1. Scroll down & you’ll find her:

      http://www.choirschool.com/contacts.html

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