The Last Lion. Volume 1: Winston Spencer Churchill: Visions of Glory, 1874-1932

pp. 122 - 123

The school years of Winston Churchill revealed strengths and weaknesses. Writing “came easily to him; his fluency would grow year by year, undiscouraged by the infrequency of replies from his parents. Arithmetic was another matter. His struggles with it seemed hopeless, and led to his only real battle with his nurse. He remembered afterward: ‘Letters after all had only got to be known, and when they stood together in a certain way one recognized their formation and that it meant a certain sound. But the figures were tied into all sorts of tangles and did things to one another which it was extremely difficult to forecast with complete accuracy. You had to say what they did each time they were tied up together. It was not any use being nearly right. In some cases these figures got into debt with one another and then you had to borrow one or carry one, and afterwards you had to pay back the one you borrowed.’”