Tuesday 2 December 2008

 

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Michael Henderson

Michael Henderson suggests


And Another Thing

Wednesday, 7th May 2008

Literary woodlice boring needless holes in biographical bedposts

Looking at historical personages from the viewpoint of the salerooms provides a revealing perspective. Rendell says of Disraeli that his autographic writings ‘are very actively collected and can be very difficult to find’. On the other hand, Gladstone’s ‘are much less collected than those of Disraeli, and both availability and price reflect this lack of interest’. Rendell says that the outstanding figure of the modern age among those collected is Winston Churchill, comparable only to Napoleon. Churchill’s immensely long career and the vast number of documents (including signed photos) he generated during it means the material is vast — all the same demand is such that any Churchill document other than routine is ‘extremely rare’. This prompts a thought. I am in my eightieth year, and only write short books now. Is it technically and humanly possible, I wonder, to write a really good short biography of Churchill? I may be tempted to try.

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