Windolph goes to the wars
THE PRESS DONALD McLACHLAN
When young Winston Churchill made his first sally into journalism four or five years ago, the prevailing opinion among professionals was that these famous names could do him as much harm as good. He was likely to find it hard to earn a reputation on his own merits; he might be regarded with some jealousy in the trade, because of the doors that his card might open: and too much might be expected of him in the early stages. Now, by seizing the opportunity offered by the looming Middle East war and sending the News of the World three well- informed pieces before it started; then by re- turning just in time to do day-by-day reports on the campaign for the Evening News, he has probably left these handicaps behind him in what the Chinese call one great leap forward. Quite apart from the publicity he has earned in these two newspapers, his face—looking over the shoulder of his father Randolph--has been seen for three weeks on hoardings all over the country under the title 'The Churchills Go
to War Again.' He is having with the Sunday Telegraph his first serialisation.
This has given rise to some confusion on two points. First, there is the impression that Ran- dolph and Winston were in Israel together during the war. That is not so. While the son was in Tel Aviv. the father was at East Berg- holt following the campaign by radio and tele- vision with the same enthusiasm and attention that he gave to the struggle over the Tory leadership after Macmillan's illness. True, Ran- dolph had been in Israel in April, and this was to prove useful in a country whose leaders hold Sir Winston in the greatest reverence for saving Israel from Hitler in 1941. Secondly, if it was the father who thought of writing the 80,000 word 'instant' book which is now being serialised in the Sunday Telegraph. it was the son who planned to visit Israel before 5 June and saw the point of staying on after 11 June and digging out a lot of confidential and per- sonal material. So if the columnists must have their little joke about this fifty-fifty partnership Windolph is the right combination of names. Eight of the book's chapters are by Winston, notably the brilliant and dramatic account of the tank battles and the expert revelation of how the Israeli air attack was planned and timed. Randolph's political and diplomatic contribution includes a study of the BBC cover- age of the campaign by radio and television which concludes that television on the war was a flop—too much talk and too few pictures.
This successful launching of the third of the free-lance- Churchills is financially as well as journalistically impressive. To the £15,000 paid by' the Sunday Telegraph for the British share of the serial rights will be added the payment for serial rights from ten other capitals. The book is to appear in the us and other countries and is certain to sell heavily in Hebrew trans- lation. Although a Corgi book on the war by an American journalist, William Stevenson, has beaten the Churchills to the bookstalls they are not worried by the quality of the competition and Heinemann-Penguin are printing 75,000 copies at 5s to start with.
How does the family news team work? Watching the final stages of proof-correcting on Tuesday, with the,new Telex machine tap- ping out corrections to New York and Ran- dolph incessantly on the telephone, I caught the flavour of a candid and robust partnership. 'Winston,' said Randolph. 'is more obstinate than I am,' after successfully defending his use of 'topseydom turvey' against his sons preference for 'topsey turveydom.' To say that the Holy War turned into an unholy mess, pro- tested Winston, was a poor sort of joke; but it was not taken out. It was clear that father had been chief of staff, engaging extra research workers and secretaries, organising publicity, negotiating the business side of the venture, getting from the BBC transcripts of all its radio and television programmes and trying vainly to get the same out of Sir Geoffrey Cox of ITN, who has been unable to oblige. The son, operating in the field, interviewed Israeli generals and private soldiers (no one between those two ranks was allowed to speak), politicians and diplomats, got a two-hour inter- view with Ben Gurion, and compiled such a detailed story of the tinting of the Israeli air strike that the Tel Aviv censors have been fidgeting ever since.
'If the ar starts again,' I asked, 'what will you do?' Write another book,' said Randolph. As this one judges that Israel, next to Turkey, is now the strongest military power in the Middle East, that second effort is not expected. So it may be some time before we see the Chur- chill news team in action again. Stories as exciting and profitable as the six-day war are rare. It has been worth 25,000 extra copies weekly to the Sunday Telegraph at a time of year when circulations are beginning to fall.
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