Churchill Played With Toy Soldiers
T is strange that the man who is now leading our Empire to victory was a dunce at school. For one thing, he hated Latin, and in addition to making little headway with his lessons, he made none at all at games. He counted the days and hours to the end of every term, when he would be let out of what to him was a prison, ‘to
go home and play the game he enjoyed best of all. This was to spread out his 1,500 toy soldiers in line of battle on the nursery floor. His greatest pleasure in those days was reading, and his teachers at that badly-run private school were unable to understand a boy who was reading books beyond his years and yet was at the bottom of the form. Win-
ston has told us himself that this state of affairs offended the teachers. But out of evil good was to come. Although Winston never could write a verse in Latin and knew no Greek except the alphabet, his boyhood reading played its part and was the foundation on which he built his, great grasp of English. That was the beginning of his style that in his books and speeches has no superior anywhere to-day-("This and That," from " Ebor’s" Scrapbook, 2YA, June 23.)
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19410711.2.15.7
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 107, 11 July 1941, Page 5
Word count
Tapeke kupu
222Churchill Played With Toy Soldiers New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 107, 11 July 1941, Page 5
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Material in this publication is protected by copyright.
Are Media Limited has granted permission to the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa to develop and maintain this content online. You can search, browse, print and download for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Are Media Limited for any other use.
Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.
Log in