Churchill’s “Brevity” memo

I’ve heard a couple times that Winston Churchill refused to read any memos longer than a page. So I looked it up and, while I can’t find any proof of that, I found this memo he wrote:

I’ve ranted a lot about overly fluffy writing:

• Write shorter nonfiction. Please.
• Write 5x more but write 5x less
• Use the smallest word that does the job
• Writing that’s meant to be seen and not read
• There’s STILL too much text on slide presentations

So I guess that makes Churchill my new hero. The last paragraph is especially beautiful. And I love how the memo itself is an example of the kind of writing he wants to see.