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Sir Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill (30 November 1874 - 24 January 1965) was a British statesman who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940-1945 and again from 1951-1955. In addit...view moreSir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill (30 November 1874 - 24 January 1965) was a British statesman who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940-1945 and again from 1951-1955. In addition to his careers of soldier and politician, he was also a prolific writer under the pen name “Winston S. Churchill”.
After being commissioned into the 4th Queen’s Own Hussars in 1895, Churchill observed the Cuban War of Independence and sent war reports to The Daily Graphic. He continued his war journalism in British India, at the Siege of Malakand, then in the Sudan during the Mahdist War and in southern Africa during the Second Boer War. He subsequently published his despatches in two works, London to Ladysmith via Pretoria and Ian Hamilton’s March (both 1900).
His fictional output included one novel, Savrola (1900) and a short story, The Dream (1947), but his main output following his election comprised non-fiction, with over 130 of his speeches or parliamentary answers published in pamphlets or booklets.
In 1923 Churchill lost his parliamentary seat and moved to the south of France, where he wrote The World Crisis, a six-volume history of the First World War (1923-1931). In 1930 he wrote his first autobiography, My Early Life, and thereafter Marlborough: His Life and Times (1933-38), a four-volume biography of his ancestor, John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough. He also wrote a series of biographical profiles for newspapers, which were later collectively published as Great Contemporaries (1937).
In May 1940, Churchill became Prime Minister and wrote no histories during his tenure, although several collections of his speeches were published. At war end he was voted out of office and returned to writing, producing a six-volume history, The Second World War (1948-53), which became a best-seller in both the UK and US.
He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 for his overall lifetime body of work.view less