The King's Speech: How One Man Saved the British Monarchy

by Mark Logue

Overview

The King's Speech was written by London Sunday Times journalist Peter Conradi and Mark Logue—grandson of Lionel Logue, whose recently discovered diaries and correspondence contain fascinating details about these true events.

At the urging of his wife, Elizabeth, the Duke of York (known to the royal family as "Bertie") began to see speech therapist Lionel Logue in a desperate bid to cure his lifelong stammer. Little did the two men know that this unlikely friendship—between a future monarch and a commoner born in Australia—would ultimately save the House of Windsor from collapse. Through intense locution and breathing lessons, the amiable Logue gave the shy young Duke the skills and the confidence to stand and deliver before a crowd. And when his elder brother, Edward VIII, abdicated the throne to marry for love, Bertie was able to assume the reins of power as King George VI—just in time to help steer the nation through the dark waters of the Second World War.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780857381118
Publisher:	Quercus Books
Publication date:	04/28/2011
Sales rank:	587,425
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 1.25(h) x 9.00(d)

About the Author

Peter Conradi is a veteran journalist, an editor for the Sunday Times, and the author of several popular biographies, including the critically acclaimed Hitler's Piano Player.

The grandson of Lionel Logue, speech therapist to the Duke of York, Mark Logue is a writer, filmmaker, and the custodian of the Logue Archive.

Simon Vance, a former BBC Radio presenter and newsreader, is a full-time actor who has appeared on both stage and television. He has recorded over eight hundred audiobooks and has earned five coveted Audie Awards, and he has won fifty-seven Earphones Awards from AudioFile magazine, which has named him a Golden Voice.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction ix

1 God Save the King 1

2 The 'common colonial' 13

3 Passage to England 33

4 Growing Pains 45

5 Diagnosis 65

6 Court Dress with Feathers 79

7 The Calm Before the Storm 91

8 Edward VIII's 327 Days 105

9 In the Shadow of the Coronation 121

10 After the Coronation 129

11 The Path to War 145

12 'Kill the Austrian House Painter' 157

13 Dunkirk and the Dark Days 171

14 The Tide Turns 187

15 Victory 203

16 The Last Words 219

Notes 230

Index 233

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Simon Vance . . . offers such a fluent and silky reading, it's as if he, too, had practiced his speechmaking with Logue. The audiobook's highlight is the recording of the speech delivered on September 3, 1939. Having been so lavishly informed of the struggles that went into the preparation of the speech, its delivery, the listener hears each pause and intonation with the greatest drama." —-Publishers Weekly Audio Review

Editorial Reviews

Published to coincide with the Oscar-winning film of the same name, this memoir by the grandson of speech therapist Logue (memorably played by Geoffrey Rush) retells the story of George VI's triumph over a speech defect from a more intimate, familial perspective. Simon Vance, familiar to many readers for his work on Stieg Larsson's novels, offers such a fluent and silky reading, it's as if he, too, had practiced his speechmaking with Logue. The audiobook's highlight is the recording of the speech delivered on September 3, 1939. Having been so lavishly informed of the struggles that went into the preparation of the speech, its delivery, the listener hears each pause and intonation with the greatest drama. A Sterling paperback. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"Simon Vance . . . offers such a fluent and silky reading, it's as if he, too, had practiced his speechmaking with Logue. The audiobook's highlight is the recording of the speech delivered on September 3, 1939. Having been so lavishly informed of the struggles that went into the preparation of the speech, its delivery, the listener hears each pause and intonation with the greatest drama." ---Publishers Weekly Audio Review

From the Publisher

Crisis rocked the British monarchy in 1936, when a shy, unexpected, and speech-impaired king was thrust forward to pull the country together and inspire confidence after his older brother, Edward VIII, abdicated. King George VI had already begun speech therapy when still Duke of York, with transplanted Australian Lionel Logue (coauthor Logue's grandfather), an elocutionist and speech therapist with new techniques. The duke's wife, the future Queen Elizabeth (later the Queen Mother), had read of Logue's breathing and confidence-building techniques and brought her husband to him. Logue instilled self-assurance in the new king (father of Queen Elizabeth II), identified "trouble spots" in his prepared speeches, and provided moral support, all contributing to a rare friendship that was to last until George VI's death in 1952. Based in part upon Logue's newly discovered diaries, the authors' (Logue, custodian of the Logue Archive, and Conradi, editor, London's Sunday Times) work details this bit of history, brought to prominence by the current film of the same name.Verdict With interest in the royal family now high and with Oscar buzz surrounding the movie, this meshing of two different personalities into one extraordinary story is all the more compelling. Anyone interested in biography, the royal family, or the movie will enjoy discovering this book.—Maria C. Bagshaw, Ecolab, St. Paul

Library Journal

This stellar audio production of the book that preceded the Oscar-winning film THE KING’S SPEECH is a must-listen for historians, gossips, royalists, colonialists, and everyone else. The audio begins with something the book can’t offer—a recording of King George VI’s actual wartime speech. It’s an atmospheric introduction to the story of two different men who become essential to each other and to Britain. An extrovert Australian vocal coach who helped create modern speech therapy and a shy, stammering Duke transformed into a fine and fluent monarch—Simon Vance inhabits them subtly, shading character with accent, tone, and pace. He also propels the plot by reading with the verve of fiction while keeping his narration behind the words. A captivating and exemplary performance. A.C.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2012 Audies Winner © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

MARCH 2011 - AudioFile