one day in thirty
whole adult life to these
strange experiences
If you wish to know about elections I am the person to tell you. I have actually fought more parliamentary elections than any living member of the House of Commons. I have fought fifteen. Think of that! Fifteen elections, each taking at least three weeks, with a week beforehand when you are sickening for it, and at least a week afterwards when you are convalescing and paying the bills. Since I came of age I have lived thirty-five years, and taking an election as dominating one month of your life, I have spent considerably more than a whole year of this short span under these arduous and worrying conditions. In fact I have devoted one day in thirty of my whole adult life to these strange experiences.
From the essay Election Memories by Winston S. Churchill as published in Thoughts and Adventures in 1947 by Odhams Press Ltd. (a reprint of an earlier 1932 edition).
Churchill was 35 and had participated in 15 elections.
He had a few more to go including the one in 1945 where, thought the voters were happy that he, Mr. Churchill, had brought about an end to war, it was his Conservative Party that had brought the war on, or at least hadn’t done much more than try to appease Mr. Hitler.
Voters have long memories.
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