Paul and Winston

An account of when Paul Johnson, who has written a new and brief biography of Winston Churchill, encountered the great man:

Mr. Johnson met Churchill himself in October 1946 when he was a boy about to go up to Oxford. "He gave me one of his giant matches he used for lighting cigars. I was emboldened by that into saying, 'Mr. Winston Churchill, sir, to what do you attribute your success in life?' and he said without hesitating: 'Economy of effort. Never stand up when you can sit down, and never sit down when you can lie down.' And he then got into his limo."