Reading Into ‘The World’s Only Winston Churchill Bookshop’

This year there is no need to fight on the beaches or the landing grounds for customers at the small shop in Midtown Manhattan called Chartwell, also known as “The World’s Only Winston Churchill Bookshop.” That’s partly because there is a sudden influx of interest as two biopics, Churchill and the recent Darkest Hour, stormed the multiplex in 2017. But owner Barry Singer, who has run the shop for 34 years, has always found a steady stream of well-to-do financiers and politicians who have an affinity for the famed British leader. It’s not just books: Singer recently sold a signed portrait of the former British prime minister dating back to World War II for $11,000. The ultimate proof of Churchill’s modern-day resurgence? That The New York Times is running a profile of a store that’s “a stately refuge of red carpet and carved oak book cabinets tucked in the public atrium of the Park Avenue Plaza between 52nd and 53rd Streets.”