The King's Speech

The King's Speech: How one man saved the British Monarchy
Mark Logue and Peter Conradi
Published by the Penquin Group (Canada). 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 2010
ISBN. 978-0-14-317854-5
242 Pages. Illustrated.

I purchased this book here in Ottawa, Canada after having attended the showing of the Film at Silvercity, Gloucester, ON. I remember the King from my early days at school when our Principal was a British soldier (now teacher) whose admiration for King George VI was extreme. The day of his funeral he wore a black arm band and we all met in the kindergarten for assembly. I can especially remember the last singing of God Save the King when it was known that he was gravely ill as we met also in assembly to pray for him. I was six years old when he died.

The movie was terrific although the actor doesn't look like King George VI but then I think that was most appropriate - he was a great man standing tall over England during the worst days of the Blitz never abandoning his people for even a moment. Although most attribute to Churchill the great victory I think that King George VI stood tall beside him and the combination was unbeatable.

The Table of Contents, Acknowledgement and Introduction clearly show the flow of the book and why it was written and published. One understands from the Introduction that the portion that is being published are notes not available to the film makers and hence do give a slightly different inmpression from the movie. I believe that the book is more reminiscent of King George VI as I would have thought he would have been.

The book itself chapter by chapter draws a picture of royalty which I think was close to the style of life enjoyed by the Royal Family at these time periods. The devotion of the Royal family to England went far beyond what one would expect to see.

The story of Lionel Logue's family life was most interesting and not really captured by the movie but then the movie was about King George VI and his personal battle with a speech stammer. The book though does capture this story and perhaps inadvertently the suffering of the Royal Family exposed constantly to the public limelight.

I highly recommend the book to anyone interested in the life of King George VI. As a young child, I can remember the devotion which my grandfather had to his King as he described the King of England and Canada. But then my grandfather never stopped being a British Subject even after fourty years in Canada. Truly the official naming of people who were citizens of Canada as of 1st January 1947 Canadians was not noticed by this then aging senior who never really lost the thought that Canada was just another part of England. Reading the book does tend to reinforce this notion because that is how one thought of Canada at that time in our history.

Both book and film are highly recommended to give one insight into the role that the United Kingdomn played in our lives in the 1940s and 1950s and continues to play in our lives in 2011.