Ebook The King's Speech: How One Man Saved The British Monarchy Azw3 Tác Giả Mark Logue

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Introduction of the ebook: The King’s Speech: How One Man Saved the British Monarchy

Đánh giá : 3.66 /5 (sao)

One man saved the British Royal Family in the first decades of the 20th century – he wasn’t a prime minister or an archbishop of Canterbury. He was an almost unknown, and self-taught, speech therapist named Lionel Logue, whom one newspaper in the 1930s famously dubbed ‘The Quack who saved a King’.

Logue wasn’t a British aristocrat or even an Englishman – he was a commoner a One man saved the British Royal Family in the first decades of the 20th century – he wasn’t a prime minister or an archbishop of Canterbury. He was an almost unknown, and self-taught, speech therapist named Lionel Logue, whom one newspaper in the 1930s famously dubbed ‘The Quack who saved a King’.

Logue wasn’t a British aristocrat or even an Englishman – he was a commoner and an Australian to boot. Nevertheless it was the outgoing, amiable Logue who single-handedly turned the nervous, tongue-tied Duke of York into one of Britain’s greatest kings after his brother, Edward VIII, abdicated in 1936 over his love of Mrs Simpson.

This is the previously untold story of the remarkable relationship between Logue and the haunted future King George VI, written with Logue’s grandson and drawing exclusively from his grandfather Lionel’s diaries and archive. It throws an extraordinary light on the intimacy of the two men, and the vital role the King’s wife, the late Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, played in bringing them together to save her husband’s reputation and reign.

‘The King’s Speech: How One Man Saved the British Monarchy’ is an astonishing insight into a private world. Logue’s diaries also reveal, for the first time, the torment the future King suffered at the hands of his father George V because of his stammer. Never before has there been such a personal portrait of the British monarchy – at a time of its greatest crisis – seen through the eyes of an Australian commoner who was proud to serve, and save, his King. …more

Review ebook The King’s Speech: How One Man Saved the British Monarchy

4.5 stars. I expected to skim the book to see what the real story behind the movie was, where the movie differed from reality, and maybe a bit more info about Logue. But I ended up reading every word! Let me be clear though, this is not the story of the movie. It’s a shame that the cover has a picture from the film. I know it’s good for sales, but it’s misleading for people who will expect a similar narrative story. The movie was the dramatization of some of the events in the book. It covered a 4.5 stars. I expected to skim the book to see what the real story behind the movie was, where the movie differed from reality, and maybe a bit more info about Logue. But I ended up reading every word! Let me be clear though, this is not the story of the movie. It’s a shame that the cover has a picture from the film. I know it’s good for sales, but it’s misleading for people who will expect a similar narrative story. The movie was the dramatization of some of the events in the book. It covered a shorter period of time, and it blurred some things together and changed some of the facts around; the goal of the movie was to entertain by telling a mostly true story, it was a biopic not a documentary. This is a history book, based on facts supported by original source materials. It doesn’t have the passion and drama of the movie. But it is surprisingly engaging. The authors have quite a deft touch at weaving what could have been just a list of facts into an interesting book. Each chapter has an arc, the personalities of the people involved come across, and overall it was very enjoyable. For me to read and entire non-fiction book, you know it had to be good! I’m not patient enough to read something dry and dull.

The book is about the history of two men, Lionel Logue and King George VI, especially as their paths intersect. It isn’t family tales told around the dinner table, it’s based entire on documents, letters, case notes, pictures, etc. As a necessary background to the histories being explored, there is also a tightly focused coverage of English history during the lives of these two men, with a dash of Australian history as well. Each man’s individual history was quite interesting, and seeing them play out together over the same period of time provided an interesting contrast between the experiences of a man so powerful but with so many responsibilities as to have very little freedom, and a man with no power but the freedom to do as he wished.

It was interesting to see how the relationship between these two men developed and played out. Contrary to what the movie portrayed, they were not constant companions from their first meeting until the end. That scene where they go walking in the park and Logue tells the then Duke that he’d be a good king never happened. They had an intense working relationship for a short period of time after the World’s Fair speech shown at the beginning of the movie, but were only in touch by letter from that point until the abdication. But they were in touch. Their letters had a very friendly tone that is quite surprising for a relationship between a Duke and a commoner. And once the Duke became the King, their working relationship resumed and their friendship become even deeper. Reading their story made me wonder, who can someone like a King or a Queen of England really be friends with, especially in older, more formal times? Between protocol, sycophants, etc., how important it must have been to have someone to trust, especially with something that made the King feel so vulnerable and helpless. Not that Logue and the King were best buds, but they continually corresponded even when not actively working together, and there seems to be a special level of honesty and warmth that was probably quite rare for the King.

I found the refresher course in English history to be as interesting as the information about the men. It had been some time since I read anything about World War II, for example. The statistics about the Blitz were shocking to me after living through 9/11, just as an American and not even as a citizen of New York. 43,000 civilians were killed and over 1 million homes damaged or destroyed in the London area alone, just during those terrible 75 nights. I can’t imagine living in that kind of fear, and with that anger and grief.

Overall, this is a very well written, relatively short biography/history book. I really enjoyed learning more about the people portrayed and the times they lived in.

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