Some 40 of his books will be issued as ebooks by Rosetta Books for our considerable reading pleasure. Books such as his ‘A History of the English Speaking Peoples’ and other equally well known and beautifully written books will become available in July.
It is hard to believe, but this extraordinary man was not only an extremely effective politician and leader of Britain during the worst parts of the Second World War, but also a writer of considerable skill – winning the Noble Prize for Literature in 1953.
As I know from my own reading of many of his works, he writes with a superb grasp of the English language, and wrote prose that is so easy to read, regardless of the subject matter – the man was a born writer, and if he had chosen to become a writer instead of a politician, he would have been equally famous I suspect.
As has been remarked, his use of English means that should one open any of his books on a random page and commenced to read, one would be captivated almost at once by the beauty and easy flow of his prose. And in case anyone has the idea that he is well known as a writer simply because of his importance as an historical figure, have a go at any of his books and you will see that he won that Nobel Prize on his merits as a writer, not as an important political figure.
For my part, I have always loved the way he used that most rich and flowing language – English – he really understood how it was put together and how to make the best use of the wealth that the English language has in it. As you may know, there are almost one million words in the English language, way more than any other language on earth I believe, so it is possible to find a word that expresses exactly what it is you are trying to say in this superb language.
Anyhow, these ebooks will be sold for prices ranging from about 5 British Pounds from the start of July.
As yet there is no clear information about where they will be sold, nor which ebook formats they will come in, but the word is that they will be sold as Kindle ebooks and iPad ebooks, so available world wide at Amazon and iTunes presumably.
Share with us:
What is you reaction to this news? Will you rush out and buy the entire collection as soon as they become available? Or does it leave you completely cold? Do let us know your thoughts on this.
June 22nd, 2012 at 4:32 pm
Very interesting article, thanks for sharing Tony.
I think the question is not directly related to sales, but to convenience and reach. As you have mentioned Sir Winston Churchill and his work deserves I am thinking about “The Second World War” and its one thousand pages for the abridged version that will be available for a wider public in electronic version.
Great news for English literature iin my opinion.