[Churchill (Winston Spencer)]
Handwritten transcripts (in an unknown hand) of Churchill's works

Transcribed works include ‘The Second World War’, 'My Early Life', 'Thoughts and Adventures', 'Great Contemporaries' and 'Step by Step', at the end of the transcripts is a several-page manuscript piece “Epilogue - Churchill the Man”, all written in manuscript longhand into two [2] large commercial ledger / day books and one [1] ledger, all by the same unidentified hand, circa 1950s, volumes one and three carry printed stationer's labels of Arthur Wrigley, Leeds, at front, large 4to (49 x 41 cm), volume two is folio (47 x 30 cm), quarter morocco, some soiling and wear and some looseness of the covers.

***An apparently unabridged and full transcripts of the the works, written on both sides of approximately 800 leaves of the 3 ledgers /day books. ‘The Second World War’ is followed straight on with full-length transcriptions in the same hand of 'My Early Life', 'Thoughts and Adventures', 'Great Contemporaries' and 'Step by Step', followed by the apparently transcriber-authored manuscript piece “Epilogue - Churchill the Man” (this last seemingly unfinished). Then approximately 150 blank leaves at rear of volume 3.

[3 volumes]

(Quantity:3)

Dimensions: v.s.

The ledgers were acquired c.25 years ago from a large house clearance near York. (This noted from this item’s previous sale at Dominic Winter Auctions of 30 January 2019).The handwriting is not Churchill's, nor any of his known secretaries, according to the Churchill Archives at the University of Cambridge. Churchill usually dictated his works and correspondence to typists in the first instance, and these were then hand corrected by Churchill, retyped and corrected once more. The only clue to authorship is a name, probably in the same hand as the manuscript itself, scribbled on a front free endpaper, possibly 'Philip H. Richings' or ‘Philip H Beeching” but this is very unclear and searching on these has delivered no answers.