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

Mark Logue (Author), Peter Conradi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 26, 2010

The "quack" who saved a king... Featuring a star-studded cast of Academy Award winners and nominees, The King's Speech won the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award and is generating plenty of Oscar buzz.

This official film tie-in is written by London Sunday Times journalist Peter Conradi and Mark Logue--grandson of Lionel Logue, one of the movie's central characters.

It's the eve of World War II, and King Edward VIII has abdicated the throne of England to marry the woman he loves. Never has the nation needed a leader more. But the new monarch, George VI--father of today's Queen Elizabeth II--is painfully shy and cursed with a terrible stammer. How can he inspire confidence in his countrymen when he cannot even speak to them? Help arrives in speech therapist Logue, who not only is a commoner, but Australian to boot. Will he be able to give King George his voice?

The King's Speech tells an inspiring tale of triumph over adversity and the unlikely friendship between a reluctant king and the charismatic subject who saved the throne.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This stellar audio production of the book that preceded the Oscar-winning film THE KINGS 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. --AudioFile Earphones Award Winner --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

About the Author

Peter Conradi's books include The Red Ripper: Inside the Mind of Russia's Most Brutal Serial Killer, Mad Vlad: Vladimir Zhirinovksy and the New Russian Nationalism, and Hitler's Piano Player.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Sterling; 1St Edition edition (November 26, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 140278676X
• ISBN-13: 978-1402786761
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (79 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #330,642 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

213 of 218 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Quiet Determination And Heroism November 24, 2010

By John D. Cofield TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

Published just before the opening of the movie of the same name, The King's Speech by Mark Logue and Peter Conradi is subtitled How One Man Saved The British Monarchy. That might seem on first glance to be typical publishing hyperbole, but after reading this fine biography most will agree that there's quite a bit of truth to it.

Lionel Logue was an Australian who moved to England during the 1920s. He was a pioneer in the teaching of elocution and as what we today call a speech therapist. His success brought him to the notice of the Royal Household, and he was soon requested to take on another patient: H.R.H. Prince Albert, Duke of York, second son of King George V.

Bertie, as the Royal Family called him, had a severe stammer that had begun during his spartan childhood and became worse as he grew up. Already outshown by his glamourous older brother the Prince of Wales, Bertie's speech difficulties caused him endless embarassment and hid his many fine qualities. Fortunately, Bertie had a wife who was determined to help her husband. Elizabeth, Duchess of York either introduced her husband to Logue or was otherwise instrumental in helping the two to connect. Over the next several years Logue met with his royal patient many times and eventually succeeded in helping the Duke gain more self confidence and speak more clearly.

Logue and Bertie's success came to be of national importance in December 1936 when King Edward VIII suddenly abdicated and left the throne to his younger brother. Now King George VI, Bertie was required to make many speeches both in person and over the air. He never completely mastered his stammer, but his improvement, fostered by Logue and by Queen Elizabeth, enabled him to speak fluently enough to satisfy all but the most severe critics. This was critical, because King George was to lead his nation and Empire through some of its darkest times of war and economic downturn.

Mark Logue is the grandson of Lionel Logue. This book is based in part on Lionel's diaries, and contains much new material on the King's speech problems and the therapies that alleviated them. It is very well written and illustrated and will be of interest to historians, those who deal with speech difficulties, and anyone who enjoys reading about determined, quietly heroic people.

79 of 80 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting to see the differences between the book and the film (spoiler alert) January 15, 2011

By Jenny Allworthy

Format:Paperback

Both the film and the book were wonderful. Having said that, the film is a wonderful story along with the kind of film crafting that will lift your heart. The book is very interesting and informative, but it is a non-fiction book, so you cannot expect the kind of entertainment that the film gives.
I thought it interesting that the filmmakers changed a few things (as they always do). Large things like (spoiler alert) that Bertie stopped his sessions with Logue because he was doing so well, not because they had a falling out. And small things like a joke between the brothers taken seriously in the movie makes one aware that Bertie and David were much closer to each other before the abdication, than the film would lead you to believe.
If you loved the film, but you would like the "real story" then you will love this book. And it really makes the relationship between Logue and Bertie seem even more amazing.

58 of 60 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars "How one Man Saved the Monarchy"... November 28, 2010

By Jill Meyer TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

In lieu of being able to watch the movie "The King's Speech" because it hasn't been released yet, I ordered the book by the same name, written by Lionel Logue's grandson, Mark Logue, and his co-author, Peter Conradi. The book is a well-written biography of Australian-born speech therapist Lionel Logue and his work with Britain's Prince Albert when he was Duke of York in the 1920's and continuing on in the 1930's when "Bertie" became King - George VI - in 1936, and then afterward during WW2.

Albert, son of King George V and younger brother of Edward VIII, had developed a stammer during his youth, which made him shy and uncommunicative. As someone who has struggled all my life with a relatively mild stutter, I thought it was good that Mark Logue did not attribute the cause of Bertie's stammer to any one thing. Stuttering is an impediment which seems to arise from both/either physical and psychological reasons and most of the time cannot be properly ascribed to any one thing. In Bertie's case, it was possibly from a difficult youth. He and his siblings were not close to their parents - as was common in those days - and his parents seemed to rather scare him when they were together. A sadistic nanny and the changing of his left-handedness to right may have contributed to his stutter. In any case, he was a man who could not always control his own speech, and he was moving into some situations where he would be called on to speak publicly and to do so often.

After his marriage, Bertie consulted Lionel Logue who had emigrated to England from Australia with his wife and young family and set up a practice in speech therapy in London's Harley Street. After much practice, Bertie was able to give speeches, but he depended on Lionel Logue's continued help as he became king - first in peacetime and then in wartime. The many speeches by radio that George was called on to make in the 25 or so years of his rule were always difficult for him, but Logue's work made them bearable to the king. Logue and George VI became friends - of a sort - because of their work together.

Mark Logue and Peter Conradi were able to look through Lionel Logue's case files and put together a very good record of Logue's work with George VI. Whether Lionel Logue "saved the monarchy" is a bit in doubt, but he did give confidence and success to the George VI when he - and the nation and the Commonwealth - needed it the most.

A note to the authors - Wallis Simpson was from an old Baltimore, Maryland family, not a Pennsylvania one.