Winston Churchill, the Morning Post, and the End of the Imperial Romance

Winston Churchill’s Morning Post correspondence from Kitchener’s 1898 Sudan expedition documents a shift in the practice and reportage of imperialism. Sensational New Journalism and aggressive New Imperialism had been locked in a mutually-supportive relationship. Special correspondents, including Churchill, emphasised the romance of empire. However, Churchill also looked forward with trepidation to a time when “there will be no more of these nice little expeditions . . . no more peerages for the generals, no more copy for the journalists.” Kitchener’s application of military technology produced a combination of tedium and horror which challenged correspondents. Churchill’s Sudan correspondence records the end of Britain’s imperial romance.