evidence: Quotations are a very rich vein because Winston Churchill’s political life extended from 1900 over 60 years. I will endeavour to draw on it a little to throw a bit of light on the lesser-known sides of his character, because the broad sweep has already been closely recorded not least by himself. His friends were not slow to take note of this. About The World Crisis Sir Samuel Hoare said, "Winston has written a huge book all about himself and called it The World Crisis.’ He himself rejoined. "I have not always been wrong. History will bear me out, particularly as I shall write that history myself." [...] Then at home, Winston Churchill’s position in his second administration had diminished substantially from the war years. Much of this was utterly inevitable. A peacetime administration is very different from that of a wartime coalition, and age had unquestionably taken its toll. But there were other factors. Churchill once ironically said to me that he envied Stalin. I was rather taken aback at this suggestion. He went on to explain that Stalin had grasped the essential that political power lay in controlling the party machine. Stalin had been general secretary of the Communist Party, like all other Russian leaders, but he, Winston Churchill, had never been popular with the top brass of the Conservative Party, and never had very much to do with it.