In fact, the photo was genuine, and Churchill eventually accepted that it was. Churchill arriving in Downing Street with a book on one of his favourite subjects-‘War.’” Churchill’s private secretary complained that the photo was “deliberately faked or forged” in order to “sustain a prejudicial caption.” The Daily Herald, radical left-wing newspaper and Churchill critic, ran this with the caption: “Mr. Its only apparent rationale is to compare Churchill with Donald Trump on the topic of “fake news.” And it’s quite a stretch.Īfter the Conservative defeat in the 1929 election, Churchill was photographed at 11 Downing Street, his former residence as Chancellor. He begins this book with another bizarre anecdote. To date, Toye does not appear to have offered any defense of that article.

This managed to draw triple rebuttals, from Andrew Roberts, Piers Brendon and Richard Langworth. There he alleged an improbable affair in the 1930s between Churchill and Doris, Lady Castlerosse. Prior to this book, he co-authored a much disputed article in the Journal of Contemporary History. Judging from earlier books like Churchill’s Empire, Richard Toye is no admirer of Churchill. Today he is the executive producer for a national cable news program. My son is a journalist who has worked at most major television news networks and digital platforms. I’ve written about Churchill for 25 years and was a First Amendment and media defense lawyer for 40. This American reader, however, has a special interest in a book about Churchill in the news. If you don’t know much about his life, skip this book and read a good general biography such as Andrew Roberts’ Churchill: Walking With Destiny. Nor will they be surprised that a political leader would be upset at negative press. An American reader likely will not be that interested in the ins and outs of English press barons as their papers covered Churchill’s exploits. Here Churchill’s interesting and long life is filtered through clippings of contemporary press reports. It’s “a book about a famous man that adds little to the average reader’s sum of knowledge.” If you know about Churchill’s life, this is not a necessary book. Oxford University Press, 2020, 386 pages, $32.95, Kindle $24.99.Īn online reviewer offers a quick take on this book which strikes me as appropriate. Richard Toye, Winston Churchill: A Life in the News.

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