The approaching 150th anniversary of Winston Churchill’s birth on 30 November has prompted a surge of comment, both positive and negative, about his life. But across that spectrum one detects a shared assumption about how to characterise Churchill, especially during his “finest hour” as Britain’s wartime prime minister in 1940-45. Adjectives such as “defiant” or “resolute” recur; he’s often described as a “diehard” or a “bulldog”. Indeed, the latter image was used for years by the Churchill Insurance Company (no connection with the family) to suggest, adroitly, its own reliability.
I’m not denying the validity of that perspective on Churchill, but I do think this stereotype has missed something really important. What made Churchill a great leader in Britain’s “darkest hour” is not just his rock-like defiance. We’ve lost sight of Churchill the Improviser.
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