Like to ask the very beautiful talented and brilliant lisa to come up tonight if you would. Lisa daftari is a fantastic journalist. Seven years at fox news. Publishes foreign desk and she has the privilege of no, actually, thats wrong. Lord dobbs has the privilege of being introduced by lisa. [ applause ] good evening. I just realized im going to be the only person on the stage tonight who doesnt have a british accent. But i do have an accent. Youll have to see if you can detect it at some point. More pertinent to the city that were in. If youd ask him, lord dobbs would tell you that he never had a proper job. Yet it was in his restless search as he calls it for this ideal job that he just happened, happened to stumble upon some of the most wonderful and rewarding experiences that anyone could ever hope to have in a lifetime. Ones that honored his presence. Ones that called upon him as a crafty and skilled storyteller. Ones that demanded his inquisitive mind and others that rewarded his wondrous creativity and innovation. It all began in a pub where i met a complete stranger, lord dobbs says about his journey. I happened to mention to him that i was looking for a job in current affairs. He bought me a drink. A little later i found myself working for a rather exceptional lady called margaret thatcher. A modest lord dobbs may call it luck while the rest of us, particularly those working in the political and media world, painfully recognize this wonderful trait as perseverance. A job with margaret thatcher. And four years later he would be the first person to tell her that she had become the Prime Minister. And the next day he took her first steps with her across 10 downing street. It was in this selfdescribed state of joblessness that lord dobbs also served as deputy chairman of sachi sachi, worked as a wellregarded bbc anchor, was hired as a newspaper columnist working at the boston globe, and that was throughout the watergate scandal, and recognized as a widely acclaimed global speaker. If only unemployment could be so fruitful for everyone. A prolific author with many acclaimed novels and, of course, like any lazy mans profile would include, doctorates from harvard and tufts. And, of course, ive saved the best for last. Whats lord dobbs known for . House of cards. Nope. Sharing a girlfriend with bill clinton. This is while they were both students at oxford. Lord dobbs was always confused as to why she never introduced the two of them. But then he admitted it took me many years and an entire president ial scandal to discover why. But you guys are right. 30 years ago lord dobbs wrote house of cards, a political thriller based on the life and vices of a politician later adopted into bbcs highly Acclaimed Television veres and most recently taken on by netflix as a webbased series telling the story of congressman frank underwood, south carolinas 5th Congressional District and house had majority whip trying get himself in the place of power in the political world starring kevin spacey as you know. Yes, its amazing. [ applause ] to date the series earned 33 prime time emmy award nominations and the series obviously underscored by premises of deceit, manipulation, darkness, power. You know, all the ingredients of a successful politician whether in washington or westminster. But all stemming from the genius of a man who is humble, talented, quickwitted, and just plain brilliant. With that, ladies and gentlemen, i am blessed with this amazing honor tonight of presenting to you lord michael dobbs. [ applause ] lisa, that was one of the most extraordinary, lovely introductions ive ever had. Thank you so much. Wow. What an occasion. I thought i was coming here to a really serious intellectual evening and now i hear that my girlfriend and bill clinton have been dragged in. [ laughter ] well, but it is actually a very serious evening. I cant tell you how honored and privileged i feel to be here in the company of so many people. And particularly david petraeus. Its an honor to be in the same room. A great american. I also want to thank the churchill family who do so much to keep winstons flame alive. Celia and randolph, yes. Randolph, of course. We owe you so much for all the work that you do and make a joy of winston so so much fun. And we heard so many votes of thanks to day from Michael Bishop and lawrence galahoo, who thanks everybody. But one thing they havent thanked is themselves. And we owe them a huge debt of thanks. Michael and lawrence. Having made our society and our love of winston not only so much fun but also so incredibly successful. And i cannot tell you how, you know, these things dont happen by accident. They happen through a great deal of work. And michael, lawrence, its largely been your work. So thank you very much indeed for that. You were talking earlier about lawrence, about who is going to say no to a churchill and delighted to discover you havent said no to a churchill, you and jenny are actually going to be a proper couple very soon. I cant tell you how delighted i am about that. [ applause ] yeah. Well. But do you ever feel that youve arrived at the wrong party . I kind of feel like that. Im a writer of fiction. And i arrive here to be surrounded by some of the finest historians of our age and the most eminent churchillians on the planet. And i simply write works of fiction. Of course, writing novels is not a proper job. It was all the fault of margaret thatcher. You may remember her. She was the woman who president mitterand of france, when he first met her, went back to paris and he said ive met this woman, she has the lips of Marilyn Monroe and the eyes of caligula. [ laughter ] 30 years ago i was her chief of staff. Chief of staff conservative party and sad to say we had a tremendous falling out. It happens. There is nothing unique about falling out with margaret. She rather insisted on it. [ laughter ] and i remember just a few weeks later after the 1987 election when i was sitting beside a Swimming Pool on holiday thinking that perhaps i should find myself a new job. In fact margaret rather insisted. I was sitting beside the Swimming Pool and i decided to write a book for no better reason than i had spare time. That book became house of cards. John major was kind enough to say it did for his job what dracula had done for babysitting. [ laughter ] and it spawned two great careers. The careers of francis ercott and frank underwood. F. U. 1 and f. U. 2 as i call them. Well, it was a hell of a row with margaret. But it doesnt stop me believing she was probably the greatest peacetime Prime Minister of the 20th century that britain ever had. Look, she led [ applause ] she led, i bled, so what . But house of cards, the book that i wrote, it seems to have got around a bit. About 18 months ago i was privileged enough to have a meeting with president xi of chooin when he came to britain. And i thought how should i mark this occasion . I decided to mark it by handing him a signed copy of the original hardback. As i handed it across to him his face lit up and then he looked at what it was and a frown creased his face. He said, what . You have house of cards in this country too . [ laughter ] ive written 20 novels. Ive got kids. You know, ive written 20 novels over the years. But the novels that i most enjoyed writing have been those four novels that ive written about winston. My relationship with winston, i regard it as a relationship. I regard him as a friend, as a as somebody who is very much a part of my life. It began of course as so many, and weve heard about that this evening from lawrence, with his funeral. I was sitting there watching it, those fuzzy blackandwhite images that we had on television. I was sitting there watching it with my mother. And i remember those images, the gun carriage, the barge, the train and that extraordinary moment that we all remember when the cranes of london dock bowed their heads in respect. What an extraordinary moment. And my mother throughout the entire time was weeping silent tears. I asked myself, why is my mother weeping, so emotional about a man she had never met . And her tears led to a time of inquiry and questioning which led me to a fascination about Winston Churchill. Not particularly the statesman, the politician, but the man, the flesh and blood man. And eventually i decided i wanted to write about him. I had to ask myself, how dare i, a novelist, write about the greatest man in english history when he has been written about by so many eminent historians over all these years . And winston himself provided me with the answer. When nevil chamberlain, his rival and predecessor, colleague, died, winston made a wonderful, a beautiful eulogy for his old rival in which he said this history with its flickering lamp stumbles along the trail of the past, trying to reconstruct its scenes, to revive its echoes, and kindle with pale gleams the passions of former days. In other words, no matter how hard they try, historians and history can never offer you the full picture. Which made me think that perhaps i as a novelist starting from a different perspective, starting from the inside out, if you like, maybe a novelist can fill in at least some of the gaps, try to capture the flesh and blood man, the passions, the private moments, the torments, the triumphs, yes, and the fears too. So i started to think of winston as a real person, not just as a cardboard cutout but a real person. Winston is an old man. And i dived into something called it was an International Society publication. A monograph called the dream. I dont know david whether we still publish it. It was an extraordinary exposition of the hangups that winston had even as a old man about his father. I wanted to know about winston as the child. So i went to his first schools. St. Georges in ascot. And i discovered the extraordinary and actually horrid story of his days at st. Georges with that appalling headmaster he had, the reverend herbert steed kinisly. A man who was intent on breaking winston. Winston at st. Georges was abused in so many ways. He was abused intellectually, he was abused physically. He was abused emotionally. And quite probably he was abused in other ways, too. Winston being a naughty boy, and he was a naughty boy. He was a pain as a kid. Was discovered one day to have stolen a pocket full of sugar from the schools pantry. And for that crime he was taken to the headmasters study where he was held. He was stripped naked. He was held down across a beating block and he was thrashed. And he was thrashed. And he was thrashed and he was thrashed. And he was thrashed not until he was black and blue, but until there were weals and blood on that poor boys body. Now, winston i think came very close to being broken at that school. In fact, he was removed from that school, thank goodness, by his nanny, mrs. Everest, when he came back from vacation on vacation on holiday from his school and she discovered all the terrible wounds on his body and insisted to his parents that he be removed from that school. He did suffer terribly from that headmaster. But when you remember that winston was not like most of the rest of us if i had been treat like that i would have held my hands up and said look, just tell me what to do in order to stop this treatment. That wasnt winstons idea. The next time, the next occasion that he had after that beating when he was able to find the headmaster away from the school, he crept in, broke into the headmasters study, crept to the back of the door where the headmaster kept his prized straw boater, the hat he wore for official occasions, his. Of authority. And winston stole from the back of the door the headmasters steed kinislys prized straw boater. And he took it down to the woods of the school and he kicked the crap out of it. Not bad for an 8yearold boy who had just been so cruelly abused. Winston was an extraordinary individual even as a young boy. But then i wanted to know about winston the father. Now imagine, imagine winston sitting at his dining table at checkers on the 7th of december, 1941. An awesome date. He was there with his daughter sarah, mary and his daughterinlaw pamela. And he was also sitting around that dining table with averal harriman, the extraordinarily powerful president ial envoy, and an understated hero but a superb American Ambassador, gil winant, who was the American Ambassador filling so wonderfully filling the shoes of the departed joe kennedy. Now, around that table that evening were the elements and those american friends of britains salvation. But they were also the elements of extraordinary personal pain. Because during that dinner the intrepid valet Frank Sawyers came into the room and brought with him a portable radio and put on the table and said listen to the news. And that is when winston and the others first heard the news of pearl harbor, the japanese attack on america. Now, for winston as a statesman this was everything he had been hoping for. At last he was able to broaden out the war and get america involved. But can you imagine the collision of feelings he must have had when he embraced his american friends, harryman and winant . Because they were great, great friends and great allies. But the austere and i think sometimes arrogant harr iyman was also the lover of pamela. And they he was helping tear her marriage to randolph apart. And wynant was in love with sarah. And it was to be an unfulfilled love which caused them both great misery and i think eventually contributed to winants suicide a few years later. While winston was rejoicing at the good fortune, and it was good fortune, of the events of that day, he must also as a father have wept. It was triumph wrapped up in torment. That was the flesh and blood side of Winston Churchill, so much pain and that man experienced so much private pain throughout his life and thats one reason why i think he adopted the policy of kbo. Just get on with it. But wla want to ask you this evening is kbo, keep bargaining on as we heard from that wonderful film last night that ill get on to in a minute. Does it have continuing relevance . Well, of course it does. I mean, joe, you made this wonderful film. And it was a real privilege to be able to see an early sighting of it. To come and present the film in front of this audience, man, that took courage. But it also brought huge personal enjoyment. Because not only did i love the film as a work of art, it reminded me your historical consultant was john lukash, who was my old professor at the Fletcher School almost 40 years ago. It reminded me of elizabeth leighton, Elizabeth Nell as i knew her, and what an extraordinary woman she was. She was very kind with the help she gave me. And it also got me thinking how very long it took to make one trip, one stop on the London Underground in those days. [ laughter ] but this is an era today of kbo. Just like it was then. So how did winston respond . We saw that in your film, joe. We saw him making what was perhaps one of the greatest speeches ever made in the english language. Im not going to do it all. Because we saw that last night. But what he said. We shall go on to the end. Not to victory, not to success, but go on to the end. Because he did not know what the outcome would be. Chilling words in many respects. We shall fight, whatever the cost shall be. We shall never surrender. Its the ultimate expression at that time of kbo. Total uncertainty in a time of greatest danger. But it was not and this is the point i want to make. It was not simply an expression of blind stubbornness. It was an example of winston never losing sight of the longer term. Even at a time when he was surrounded by chaos. Never lost sight of the longer term or of the deeper gain. I think some people call it the vision thing. Because he went on to say this, and we saw that last night too. The closing worlds of that film. Theyre not so well known. But i think its equally important as those early remarks. He went on to say that even if this island or a large part of it were to were subjugated and starving then our empire beyond the seas would carry on the struggle until in gods good time the new world with all its power and might steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old. He knew what it was about. He never lost sight of what he was fighting for. And what was he fighting for . He was fighting for the survival of our values, of western values, values which we shared at that time, we as britain shared at that time with the new world. And, you know, even at the time going through all those perils winston, of course, won. And today were back in a world of uncertainty and confusion. Well, you know, politics. Politics they say is the worlds second oldest profession. That takes most of the rules from first. [ laughter ] but i think i really do think winston would be really distressed at what politics has become right at this moment. Where it seems to be all about volume and venom and how distressed he would be at the lack of magnanimity which we see in modern politics. Were rather like i think, right now were rather like a man bent over, examining his shoelaces because they happen to be untied. And being obsessed by the fact that your shoelaces are untied and, yes, of course we have problems. But while youre bending over, you expose your vulnerable parts to the rest of the world. That is exactly what we seem to have been doing. Kbo does not mean keep bending over. [ laughter ] now, winston, i suspect, probably couldnt have seen his shoelaces and he would certainly never have bent down to tie them himself. What he would have done, what was he raised himself to his full 55 s 55 1 2 as he stood corpses of his political adversaries and looked around him. He would have looked ahead. He would have he would have looked to the future as he always did. Even during those dark days of 1940 and 1941. He would have seen a western world which still at its full height whether it stands up tall towers above the rest. And i dont mean to be unkind to any other culture or part of the world. But i think its an objective fact that still here in the west we are well, let me put it this way. Im a realist. I have to be. Ive got four kids. But im also an optimist. And i have to be. Ive got four kids. But i cannot think of any other part of the planet where i would have more wanted to have brought up my children and watched them bring up their children than in this part of the world. [ applause ] for the last 300 years, the western world has had the most decisive innovations. We have the most worldchanging inventions. We have done so much of the inspiration and produced so much of the culture that has marked the progress of humanity. And lets not say 300 years. Lets say 1,000 years. Why have we been so successful . Not because we have the best politicians, no. But because we have the finest universities. We have the most vibrant culture. We have law. We have freedom of association, we have freedom of ideas and torrents even in this rather awkward age of social media which allows us to move forward together. Now, of course, we have in that time experienced some terrible setbacks. But the march of progress over all those centuries has been inexorable. And we have to put those setbacks into context. We are right now in a kbo moment i think. The way ahead seems to be lost in the mists around us. In america, there is more Political Division than i think there has ever been in my lifetime. In germany, supposed to be the strongest part of europe, we have a chancellor who has been humbled recently and is much weaker and faces a very difficult time ahead. In britain we have mrs. May, who may not. [ laughter ] and that gives me no pleasure to say so. And so much of the rest of europe is in freefall. Spain this week. Greece last year. Greece this year. Literally every other year. Its a very difficult time. And brexit. Everybody else today seems to have mentioned brexit. So im not going to miss my chance. And im going to impose upon your patience. Winston said he only ever required three things of an audience that they be well educated, well intentioned, and well oiled. I hope im on to a winner this evening. Particularly with the well oiled. I mean, its so its been so often mentioned, so im going to im going to ask you to take a look beyond kbo and simply the short term and todays headlines. Now, what side would winston have been on . Now, every side in the debate always claims winston as they grab a quote probably out of context and say winston would have thought this and thought that. Well, winston had a political life of 65 years. 65 long years. I think he probably said almost everything probably several times over. And the whole idea that we can be clear about what winston would have said or would have thought is nonsense. But i do believe he saw europe in its broadest sense. He saw its history. He valued its cultures, its values, not just its institutions. Institutions come. They change. And they go. I think he would have enjoyed the diversity of europe. Now, how can i put this to you, to a nice polite audience . Let me tell you a little story. Imagine that you are in a Railway Carriage and a young couple come and sit opposite you. And as theyre sitting there, they start they start making love. Now, as a frenchman you would start applauding. As a german you would sit and take detailed statistical analysis. As an italian you would get up and join in. As a greek you would sell tickets and as an irishman you would dance a jig. But if you were an englishman, you would sit and stare stowically out of the window as if absolutely nothing was going on. Vive la difference. Of course if you came from brussels you would get out a big manual of rules and regulations to make sure they were doing it properly. But thats another matter. Of course the differences that we have in europe, differences in culture and differences in objective, have caused much tension and torment over the centuries. But those differences have also been the source of an endless outpouring of wonderful culture. Of music, of literature, of art, of science, of drama. Of architecture. And political thinking. And that was europes great role until of course Young America came along and showed us there were other ways to do things too. Now, i want to leave a thought in your mind over the future of europe. It may have you reaching for your glasses. I see alan, my Dear Colleague down there alan, who we have different views on this matter. Youll just have to indulge me this evening. But differences in europe, yes, have caused much tension and turmoil. But the greatest turmoil and tragedy i suggest has been caused not by competing nationalism in europe but by the attempt of one authority or ideology or autocracy or bureaucracy to bring about one system in europe. And that has been true ever since the days of napoleon. And they have all failed. Now, the west has found such great strength in its diversity. Not in its uniformity. What side would winston have taken . According to joe i watched it last night. I watched it very closely. I learned something about watching your film. And i think winston would have said, as he did in your film last night, do not trust establishments. Do not trust elites. Trust the people. Take a trip on the train. As he did. I dont expect you all to agree with that. But i would ask you to think about it at least. You know, we have so many reasons to be optimistic, if only we could raise our eyes from our shoelaces and remember just how good we are. Remember the berlin wall, how it was pulled down. It wasnt destroyed by military might. It was pulled down by the bare hands of millions of ordinary men and women who wanted to be part of us, to share with us what we have. Is and yes, economic advantages but it was so much more than that. It was our freedoms, our values, our dreams. I started with winstons beautiful eulogy to his predecessor Neville Chamberlain about historys flickering lamp. But thats not all he said that afternoon. He went on to say this, words that i think are as relevant today as they ever were. The only guide to a man is his conscience. The only shield his memory is the rectitude and sincerity of his actions. It is very imprudent to walk through life without the shield because we are so often mocked by the failure of our hopes and the upsetting of our calculations. But with this shield, however the fates may play, we march always in the ranks of honor. Winston was a man of honor, a man who never bothered to look at his shoelaces. He was a man of vision. He was a man of dreams. Great dreams that inspired a world and went on to save it for us. So thank you for listening this evening, and may your dreams go with you. [ applause ] lee edwards chronicles his 60year involvement in the conservative movement. I met joe mckarthy through my father who was something of a confidant to him. He was a hail fellow well met. He liked a drink or two. As long as you didnt talk about communism you couldnt ask for a more fun guy to be with. But he was very serious about that, and he was also someone who did not take advice very well. And he consequently said things and even did things that hurt the cause of anticommunism for some time. Q a sunday night at 8 00 eastern on cspan. More on the life and career of Winston Churchill in just a moment. But first, we want to tell you about wednesday night. There will be more American History tv in prime time way focus on the legacy of the nations 35th president , john f. Kennedy. That begins at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. In 1953 Winston Churchill was awarded the nobel prize in literature for his sixvolume book the second world war. Up next on American History tv well take a look at churchills career as a historian with journalist andrew roberts. This is 50 minutes. Ladies and gentlemen, we ended last years conference with a presentation by andrew roberts. And we know a winning formula when we see one. So to introduce andrew this year, we have the beautiful catherine katz. [ applause ] hello. Ill keep my remarks brief in order to maximize the amount of time we have to be informed and entertained by our next and final speaker, andrew roberts. And for those of you who recall his presti