A Quote by Anne Sebba

After a burglary of all her most valued and treasured possessions, Winston Churchill's aging mother wrote: "That burglar relieved me of an obsession. For years, I've had to take houses big enough to hold all these bibelots. I am almost grateful to him."

Anne Sebba

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After Aging Almost Am Big Big Enough Burglar Burglary Churchill Enough Grateful Had Her Him Hold Houses Me Most Mother Obsession Possessions Relieved Take Treasured Valued Wrote Years

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Anne Sebba
British - Biographer
Born: 1951

Adlai Stevenson, himself a notable speaker, often reminisced about his last meeting with Churchill. I asked him on whom or what he had based his oratorical style. Churchill replied, "It was an American statesman who inspired me and taught me how to use every note of the human voice like an organ." Winston then to my amazement started to quote long excerpts from Bourke Cockran's speeches of 60 years before. "He was my model," Churchill said. "I learned from him how to hold thousands in thrall."

William Bourke Cockran

Although still viewed as lovely and alluring by many, Winston Churchill's mother shocked society when at 46 she married a man 20 years her junior. Most malicious of the many jibes launched at her was that of one lady who went about peering into perambulators. When asked her reason, she replied, "I am searching for my future husband."

Anne Sebba

He treasured her, treasured her tears, treasured her love for others. Her heart might even be big enough to fill that empty space in his own chest. Perhaps she could be his heart as well.

Elizabeth Hoyt

Winston Churchill never said that people had let him down when he lost the elections after the World War II.

Raj Thackeray

Winston Churchill was not entirely British. His mother was American, making Sir Winston part Iroquois Indian.

Rachel Blanchard

Winston Churchill was like Winston Churchill because of his experiences in life.

Nicholas Soames

When I became obsessed with Winston Churchill, I wrote a book about Churchill. What a joy it was to write that book!

Gretchen Rubin

My mum is in a mental hospital. There's a fine line between genius and insanity. Winston Churchill, Mozart, John Lennon. These people all had a touch of crazy that fuelled their brilliance. They were not locked up for it like my mum. Pft. Then again, Winston Churchill never tried to kill my dad.

Christopher Titus

My mother, Anne, was a cleaner and a shopkeeper. Out of economic necessity she had to hold down two jobs and she would take me and my older sisters, Dawn and Joanna, and my younger brother, David, with her when she cleaned houses.

Robson Green

Now, forty years after his passing, Winston Churchill is still quoted, read, revered, and referred to as much, if not more, than when he was alive.

Mac Thornberry

Benjamin Netanyahu is no Winston Churchill. Whatever else he, is he's not a Winston Churchill. He basically violated the great rule, which is it's better to mislead the people and to lose an election than to mislead the people and win an election.

Mark Shields

Eleanor Roosevelt started off almost every early article she wrote, starting with, "My mother was the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen." And I think her life was a constant and continual and lifelong contrast with her mother.

Blanche Wiesen Cook

I had the patriotic conviction that, given great leadership of the sort I heard from Winston Churchill in the radio broadcasts to which we listened, there was almost nothing that the British people could not do.

Margaret Thatcher

Am reserving two tickets for you for my premiere. Come and bring a friend - if you have one. Telegram inviting Winston Churchill to opening night of Pygmalion. Churchill wired back: Impossible to be present for the first performance. Will attend the second - if there is one.

George Bernard Shaw

As a student, I had stayed with Winston Churchill; later, I had lunched with Harold Macmillan - in fact, had met most of the post-war prime ministers of Great Britain from Douglas-Home to Tony Blair.

Nigel Hamilton

I was the executer of our mother's trust. She asked me to hold onto the house for 10 years and then sell it. I think that was because it was so hard to face dying and think of all her most prized possessions no longer being a part of our lives as well. Business wise, it was a terrible investment, because we were losing money.

Kyle Richards

A Quote by Anne Sebba

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