ABSTRACT
Before Winston Churchill made history, he made news. To a great extent also, the news made him. If it was his own efforts that made him a hero, it was the media that made him a celebrity, and they have been considerably responsible for perpetuating his memory and shaping his reputation in the years since his death. As several earlier chapters demonstrate, Churchill made his name via writing and journalism in the years before 1900, the money he earned helping to support his subsequent political career – at a time when MPs did not get salaries. Journalistic activities were also important to him later, as he struggled in the interwar years to find the wherewithal to run and maintain Chartwell. Not only was journalism an important aspect of his political persona, but he himself was a news obsessive. Clementine Churchill once related the story of her honeymoon in Venice. “It was all new to her, and as they walked down some famous street of palaces she looked about her with wonder and delight. Suddenly she missed Winston. He had dived into a newspaper shop and presently emerged with a bundle of copies of the Times under his arm. He sat down on a stone and buried his head in the paper, oblivious to all the beauties of Venice.” 1
