Controversial, Flawed, Inspirational Saviour

Much to my mother's disgust I failed the eleven plus and was dispatched to boarding school. I therefore wasn't with my father when he took my grammar school sisters to London for Winston Churchill's funeral, fifty years ago. I did get to see films at school though. We were never taken to the cinema at home. I remember watching The Colossus Of Rhodes and thought of that huge statue straddling the entrance to Rhodes harbour as I crouched in the mud under the gaze of that colossus of the twentieth century.

Churchill was the MP for Epping and his statue stands at Woodford Green. I enjoyed my drive through the forest this afternoon and my brisk walk on the Green. I think my father would have appreciated the pilgrimage I made with him in mind.