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Cate Ludlow, I Love Churchill: 400 Fantastic Facts, The History Press, 2016, 160 pages, £10.
ISBN: 978–1841657349
M. S. King, The British Mad Dog: Debunking the Myth of Winston Churchill, Create Space, 2016, 252 pages, $18.95.
ISBN 978–1530657742
Kathryn Selbert, War Dogs: Churchill and Rufus, Charlesbridge, 2016, 48 pages, $7.95.
ISBN 978–1580894159
Review by David Freeman
David Freeman is the editor of Finest Hour.
New books about Winston Churchill vary in size and quality. Whatever the case, Finest Hour sets out to separate the wheat from the chaff. There can be beauty in the miniature and malignancy in the meretricious.
Cate Ludlow’s I Love Churchill: 400 Fantastic Facts presents just that: 400 reliable facts about Churchill’s life in chronological order. This small but handsome paperback has sharp, modern graphics on each page to illustrate the concise but striking information. Despite the size, this quick and delightful read will not be out of place on display with its larger coffee-table siblings—a true gem.
“Many deplorable things are said under free speech,” Churchill observed in 1951, and M. S. King has made a career out of proving this point. His previous books include Planet-Rothschild, a two-volume attempt to show that the Rothschilds secretly run the world; and efforts to exculpate Putin and Hitler—the latter called Mein Side of the Story. At least he has a sense of humor. The British Mad Dog: Debunking the Myth of Winston Churchill adopts the form of presenting bare facts and then interpreting them with an acidtipped pen intent on proving that Churchill was the anti-Christ. For King, Churchill’s many suspicious acts include joining the Freemasons. It seems King cannot decide for himself whether it is Jewish bankers or Freemasons that secretly control everything.
Cleanse your mind with this: Kathryn Selbert’s War Dogs: Churchill and Rufus is a sweet and warmly illustrated children’s book telling the story of Churchill’s time as prime minister during the war from the vantage point of his toy poodle Rufus. Famous quotations are posted throughout the book and documented in the back, where there is also a list of useful resources for children to explore, including The Churchill Centre’s website. Artistic liberties have been taken, of course. Rufus did not in fact sit on the Treasury Bench while his master spoke from the Despatch Box, but one rather wishes that he had. Woof!
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