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Articles
Great Churchillians: Antoine Capet, Tribute to a Friend
- By RICHARD M. LANGWORTH
- | July 15, 2022
- Category: Books
Dear Antoine
The last of our 800 emails since 2012 arrived May 13th, a stab in the heart: “I am very poorly, I have developed a severe form of cancer of the blood. I spent most of the last four weeks in hospital—out today after an operation to remove liquid from around my lungs. I am extremely weak and cannot make any plans for the future.”
A bright star in the Churchill firmament was lost on June 2nd. Our colleague Dave Turrell speaks for us all: “One of the nicest, kindest men I ever met.” Writes Paul Rafferty, whose great book on Churchill’s Riviera paintings was translated by Antoine: “He was a joy to work with. He was precise, knowledgeable, questioned everything, and got it ‘right.’ My French edition has few to zero errors to my knowledge, and this is down to Antoine.”
To those Martin Gilbert called “toilers in the Churchill vineyard,” Antoine Capet was known through 2014 as Professor of British Studies at the University of Rouen. He ran numberless lectures, seminars and proceedings. He wrote erudite book reviews, and published in Cercles, Revue pluridisciplinaire du monde anglophone.
For the Hillsdale College Churchill Project, Antoine Capet produced a score of articles, abstracts and book reviews, exhaustively researched and pinpoint accurate. Refusing honoraria, he requested copies of The Churchill Documents as they were published. He soon had them all, but again waved away further rewards. To Antoine, ferreting out the truth was reward enough. When I asked if he’d seen the exquisite Monaco a la voile latine edition of Savrola, he acquired a copy, and then another, and another. He was soon an expert on this beautiful limited edition, and wrote an informed article about its variations.
Joie de vivre
If you want to know about wine, ask a Frenchman. Antoine knew wine as well as he knew Churchill, and advised me with his usual precision about what to buy and avoid. “Skip those fancy châteaux on the 1855 Bordeaux classification,” he urged. “Cru Bourgeois boasts exquisite but little known châteaux that are equally good and a fifth the price.” When I felt adventuresome, he sent me to the Haut-Pyrénées: “Now, from the Madiran area, you might like to look Château d’Aydie. But beware: the Odé d’Aydie is their ‘second wine.’ One must insist on Château d’Aydie. I only discovered it recently and was seduced by the value for money.” I promise, you can take his advice to the bank.
Antoine’s English was as flawless as his French. I admired his unimpeachable command of two languages, a skill denied me. Only a few weeks ago, we joked about a U.S. newspaper giving the French spelling of “Putin” as “Putain,” a derogatory term in French. Antoine quipped: “I can only contribute by indicating that in French, Putin becomes ‘Poutine’ (like Lénine and Staline), so no confusion is possible!” He laughed when I told him Quebec has renamed “poutine,” its national dish, to avoid connotations with Mr. Putin.
On a more serious level Antoine brought his quality of cheery pedantry to every subject under the sun, and we will vastly miss his skillful advice, always delivered in the politest terms without the slightest hint of rebuke. Combined with his comprehensive knowledge of the Churchill saga, those are rare qualities. We miss him already, for he has left an unfillable hole among the friends who loved him.
Books by Antoine Capet
Churchill le dictionnaire, 2018
Montgomery: L’artiste des batallies, 2014
Flaubert’s parrot de Julian Barnes, 2002
Civilians in War: Key Documents, 1939-1945, 1996 (with Monica Charlot & Irene Hill)
Le poids des années de guerre – les classes dirigeantes britanniques et la réforme sociale, 1995
Editor, with B.J.C. Mckercher: Winston Churchill: At War and Thinking of War before 1939, 2019
Translations
Paul Rafferty, Winston Churchill Painting on the French Riviera, 2020
Winston S. Churchill, Mes grands contemporains, 2019
Andrew Roberts, Churchill, 2018
Winston S. Churchill, Memoirs de la grand guerre 1911-1915, 2014
Mary Soames, ed., Winston et Clementine Churchill: Conversations intimes 1908-1964, 2014 (with Dominique Boulonnais)
Articles
“Great Contemporaries: Paul Reynaud, Some Answers and a Question,” 2022
“1100 Titles: An Annotated Bibliography of Works about Churchill” (contributor), 2021
“Eccentric to a Fault: The Field Collection of Churchill ‘Stories,’” 2021
“Lord Woolton and the Battle to Feed Britain,” 2021
“Churchill’s Illnesses: A Vital Medical Contribution by Doctors Vale and Scadding,” 2021
“Churchill and the Channel Tunnel,” 2020
“Abstracts: Vale and Scadding on Churchill’s Episodic Ailments, 1922-65,” 2019
“Abstracts: Historians Survey Sir Winston’s Health in Old Age,” 2019
“Churchill: The Statesman as Artist,” by David Cannadine,” 2019
“Editions Le Sphinx: A Fine Illustrated Edition of Churchill’s War Memoirs,” 2019
“Savrola: Churchill’s Novel and Its Most Beautiful Appearance,” 2019
“The Churchill Documents, vol. 20, Normandy and Beyond, May-December 1944,” 2018
“Abstracts: Physicians Consider Churchill’s Cardiovascular History,” 2018
“Abstracts: Winston Churchill and Europe,” 2018
“Moi: A New Pictorial Documentary With a Twist,” 2018
“Korda on Britain in 1940,” 2018
“Abstracts: Vale and Scadding Consider Aspects of Churchill’s Health,” 2018
“Abstracts: Churchill and the Iron Curtain Speech, Part 1, Part 2, 2017
“Churchill for Readers who Read Monitors,” 2017
Thank you, Richard, for a moving tribute to one of our most ‘Eminent Churchillians’. Would that it were not needed.
I had the good fortune to be engaged in a relaxed email conversation with Antoine, which drifted across the better part of a decade. We’d talk of Churchill, of books, and sometimes of life’s lesser things. He was always wise, courteous and engaging.
The loss is a cruel one to all of us.
Repose en paix, mon ami. Tu nous manques.
An extremely touching tribute to a great man. RIP Antoine.