WATCH DANIEL GERROLL READ JOHN COLVILLE’S ‘THE FRINGES OF POWER’
BOOK #3 IN OUR '40TH READINGS AT CHARTWELL BOOKSELLERS' VIDEO SERIES
In 1985, Sir John Colville, Winston Churchill’s wartime Private Secretary, finally agreed to the release of his never-intended-for-publication personal diaries. THE FRINGES OF POWER: 10 Downing Street Diaries 1939-1955 instantly became a classic and one of our earliest best-sellers. It remains so; a seminal work of Churchillian historical scholarship.
We are honored to present actor Daniel Gerroll reading the opening entries from Sir John Colville’s THE FRINGES OF POWER.
Watch now.
No one was closer to Winston Churchill at work than Sir JOHN RUPERT COLVILLE (1915-1987), familiarly known as “Jock,” who served Churchill as his Private Secretary during the war and after, through two Premierships. Colville’s father had been a Tory Chief Whip, his mother, a courtier; Woman of the Bedchamber to Queen Mary. He served as Assistant Private Secretary to Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain before being assigned to the new P.M., Chamberlain’s successor, Winston Churchill. Despite serious initial reservations about Churchill, Colville grew to become one of his most ardent admirers and staunchest defenders, an evolution that unfolds dramatically in the pages of his diaries, which were never intended for publication.
DANIEL GERROLL, born in London, has been for many years an honored actor in the West End, on Broadway, and Off-Broadway. He won the Theatre World Award for THE SLAB BOYs and KNUCKLE, the Outer Critics Circle Award for TRANSLATIONS and the Village Voice’s Obie Award for Sustained Excellence of Performance. His Broadway credits include PLENTY, THE HOMECOMING and ENCHANTED APRIL. He is recognized from movies like CHARIOTS OF FIRE, 84 CHARING CROSS ROAD, BIG BUSINESS; on television from SEINFELD, CHEERS, SEX IN THE CITY, LAW AND ORDER. And right here at Chartwell Booksellers, way back in 1989, Mr. Gerroll read from newly reissued editions of Winston Churchill’s THE STORY OF THE MALAKAND FIELD FORCE and MY AFRICAN JOURNEY in tandem with, of all people, Alec Baldwin, a reading you can listen to HERE.
40th READINGS AT CHARTWELL BOOKSELLERS
toasts the best 40 books about Winston Churchill published during our forty year existence. We launched the series on April 11 with actor JOHN LITHGOW reading
THE LAST LION. You can watch that reading: HERE.