In August 1940, Winston Churchill likened the relationship between Britain and America to the Mississippi: 'It just keeps rolling along,' he told the Commons, 'full flood, inexorable, irresistible, benignant.' In the car afterwards he sang 'Ole Man River' (out of tune) on the way back to Number Ten.

Sixty years later, one might say the same about Ole Man Churchill, whose reputation just keeps rolling along. The tide of books is unceasing - I could have added several more to those discussed here - as are the movies and documentaries, with Albert Finney following Richard Burton and Robert Hardy as a screen Churchill. As for approval ratings, in an admittedly contrived phone-poll BBC2 viewers last November voted him the greatest Briton of all time.

LRB 7 August 2003 | PDF Download