Sir John Martin

Sir John Martin, who worked for Winston Churchill during World War II, outlines how the Prime Minister went about composing his speeches. He prepared them himself, dictating directly to a shorthand writer, and took great care selecting appropriate words and phrasing. Only after Churchill had checked through a written-up version himself was anyone else allowed to see and comment on it.

The 'some chicken some neck' quote refered to in this programme extract is from a speech Churchill made to the Canadian Parliament on 30th December 1941. The text of the speech is:
'The contribution of Canada to the Imperial war effort in troops, in ships, in aircraft, in food and in finance has been magnificent... Hitler and his Nazi gang have sown the wind: let them reap the whirlwind... When I warned them [the French] that Britain would fight on alone whatever they did, their generals told their Prime Minister and his divided cabinet: 'In three weeks England would have her neck wrung like a chicken.' Some chicken! Some Neck!"