The Churchill Series – Mar. 27, 2006

(One of a series of weekday posts on the life of Winston S. Churchill.)

I want to confirm something about Churchill. Perhaps you can help.

I'll bet you’ve heard the following story:

George Bernard Shaw is one of Edwardian England’s best known playwrights while Churchill’s a London theatre critic who regularly skewers Shaw's works.

With the opening of his newest play just days away, Shaw sends Churchill a note:

Enclosed please find two tickets for my opening night: one is for you, the other is for a friend, if you have one.

Churchill replies:

Can’t make the opening. Will be there for the second night, if there is one.

Certainly a great story. But did it really happen?

All sorts of books with titles like “A Thousand Stories to Get Your Audience Laughing” and “Churchill’s Wit” contain the story and claim it’s true.

But when I read historians such as Martin Gilbert and William Manchester, I don’t find the story.

So did it really happen?

Can you help?