While I appreciate the point he is trying to make, Stephen Mansfield really should do a little more research before dipping his toes into historical controversy. We do not "know" if Winston Churchill's wartime speeches were really delivered by an actor as Mansfield asserts in his Aug. 31 book review "Fiery romance raging in the tumult of war."
The Churchill Center, for one and to my view quite compellingly, demolishes it as a "spoof" at their home page. That an infamous extreme-rightwing revisionist "historian" is one of the leading proponents of the "actor" position also does little to instill confidence in the claim.
I have no ponies in this race, so to speak, and the truth may indeed keep disreputable company. But casual assertions of certitude when the jury is still out, even made in passing, annoy the hell of me and only add to the haze of junk information that is already out in the world.
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