From Mr George Stem
Sir: In his review of Churchill books by Geoffrey Best and David Irving, Vernon Bogdanor concentrates on refuting Irving's revisionism — and adds some pro-EU propaganda — but he tells us very little indeed about the book.
I, too, dislike Irving's revisionism, but I don't read the book for that. I read it for the huge number of vivid quotations from (usually unpublished) contemporary documents. To take one of thousands, before entering a House of Commons committee room, WSC carefully lights up a cigar remarking, 'Never forget your trademark!'
All this brings Churchill to life in a way that the hagiographies which Bogdanor rightly criticises don't — and in a way which, to me at least, makes Churchill more attractive overall rather than less.
George Stern
London N6
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