Book "The King's Speech" (2010) by Logue & Conradi

[Bob Pr.]

This book, researched by Lionel Logue's grandson, is primarily based upon a treasure trove he recently discovered of files, letters, scrapbooks, and treatment notes by Lionel Logue (plus letters of his family members), related letters and diaries of the royal family, as well as pertinent contemporary newspaper accounts.

It'll be of interest to anyone interested in that period of history, and especially to those interested in the British royal family of that era, and/or the development of speech therapy, intergenerational family system processes (of the royals), and/or those wanting to compare the narrative of the movie (which took its title from this book) with the actual events. (FWIW, IMO, Logue seems admirably principled and ethical--far more than presented in the film.) The book also gives a sense of some of the life in Britain during WW-II.

The movie does some inventing, reinventing, dramatizing the ordinary (of course), and condensing. For instance, there was actually a period of several years of no treatment and little or no face-to-face contact between them after Logue's initial, largely succesful remediation of Bertie's speech problems and before Bertie's coronation as George VI. The movie skips that interruption.

ETA: As I understand it, those making the movie and those researching and writing the book began independently and without awareness of the other. The movie may have started filming (or at least the screen play was in or near final form) when they learned of Mark Logue's and Conradi's research and writing. The film people contacted Logue & Conradi and, after seeing some of their material, formed an agreement to also use the provisional title of L&C's book for their movie as well as revising some of their screen play to better reflect the historical events and relationships. Since L&C had thousands of pages of written material to draw upon, far more than they could include, once they formed an agreement with the film people, very probably they also slightly revised their book so it would include some material with relevance to the movie. My guess is that both the film and book somewhat influenced the other.

"TKS," the movie, spins a compelling story with most of its main points drawn from history.

"TKS," the book, presents as close to an accurate, actual tracing of history (through the eyes of Logue) as we're likely to get.

They're probably of most interest when taken as a pair and compared.

The book (paperback) is about $10 (+ tax, ships free) from Amazon; hardcover more $$. (Link below also has customer reviews of the book.)

Amazon.com: The King's Speech: How One Man Saved the British Monarchy (9781402786761): Mark Logue, Peter Conradi: Books