Tribute to Churchill

SIR – The National Trust should give prominence at Chartwell to its recently acquired volume presented to Churchill on his 80th birthday in 1954 (report, June 6). The pleasure that it gave helped him cope with the deep distress caused by Graham Sutherland’s portrait, which he received at the same time.

The book contains a moving tribute to his parliamentary service prefaced by a quotation from John Bunyan. He told his audience in Westminster Hall that “the care and thought which have been devoted to this beautiful volume and the fact that it bears the signatures of nearly all my fellow members deeply touches my heart”.

His other gift, which he dismissed as a “remarkable example of modern art”, was stored briefly in the cellar at Chartwell before being burnt. A copy (detail above), however, by Albrecht von Leyden, is in the possession of the Carlton Club. Lord Lexden

London SW1