In the spring of 1949 Winston Churchill made recordings of his most famous speeches of the Second World War. In total there were 15 recording sessions, many taking place at Chartwell in peace-time Kent rather than war-time London. The recordings were not released, however, until years later just shortly before his death. Joel Nelson explores the story of the recordings in his article “Churchill Off Record” in History Today (73:5, May 2023). He offers two motives for Churchill’s making of the recordings: “preserving his words for posterity and making money.” The recordings were successful on both counts as they are the only known recordings of many of Churchill’s war-time speeches and the release The Voice of Churchill reached number 6 on the charts in February 1965. The journal web site is here.
Churchill Research
21 Friday Jul 2023
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