Sir Winston Churchill | Secret Session Speeches, London, 1946, Clement Attlee's presentation copy

Sir Winston Churchill

Secret Session Speeches, London: Cassell and Company Ltd., 1946

PRESENTATION COPY, GIVEN TO CLEMENT ATTLEE AS PRIME MINISTER, 8vo (215 x 138mm.), half-title, publisher's green-blue cloth, stamped in gilt, printed compliments slip loosely inserted ("with the compliments of Winston S. Churchill") with pencil note ("addressed to P.M."), extremities slightly bumped

"The reason why I asked the House to go into Secret Session was not because I had anything particularly secret or momentous to say. It was only because there are some things which it is better for us to talk over among ourselves than when we are overheard by the Germans." 

The subjects of these speeches include the functioning of Parliament during the Blitz, The Battle of the Atlantic and the Fall of Singapore. The current copy of the book was presented by Churchill (as Leader of the Opposition) to the then Prime Minister, Clement Attlee, who had been his wartime deputy and played an important role in the debates recorded here.

Attlee wrote an article on his love of books which gives a strong impression of the important part they played in his life, and also accounts for the absence of dust-jackets:

“...There they stand, two or three thousand of them; the accumulation of many years – old friends and newcomers. Many of them are seldom or never opened, but I should hate to be without them. They are part of my life. The seniors have for the most part been bought, many of the juniors are gifts from the authors, while others are the fruits of inheritance. They make a pleasant pattern of colour. Some are still fresh in bright bindings. I have ‘dust covers’. If they have come to stay why should they wear their overcoats?’...” (from C.R. Attlee, ‘The Pleasure of Books’, The National and English Review, 1954)

For Clement Attlee, see also lots 253, 293, 315, 316, 348, and 375. 

LITERATURE:

Cohen: 227.2.a

PROVENANCE:

Clement Attlee, bookplate