The King's Speech (32 page)

Authors: Mark Logue,Peter Conradi

Tags: #Biography & Autobiography, #General, #History, #Modern, #20th Century, #Royalty

BOOK: The King's Speech

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That being said, the two men’s very different positions in what was still a very class-ridden society meant that there were limits to how close this relationship could be – especially after Bertie became King. The tone, not just of Logue’s letters but also of entries in his diary, both of which have been quoted extensively in this book, reveal a deep respect not just for the King as a person but also for the institution of monarchy. Indeed, to a modern reader, the tone Logue adopts when writing of the King can seem fawning – especially more so in the case of the Queen Mother.

The last word belongs to one of the few people still alive at the time of writing who actually knew Logue well – his daughter-in-law Anne, who was married to his middle son Valentine, and who, in the summer of 2010, although already in her early nineties, remained enviably sharp and sprightly. Her opinions appeared to be given further weight by her career, which had culminated in her becoming Consultant in Child Psychiatry at the Middlesex Undergraduate Teaching Hospital.

Asked about the secret of her father-in-law’s success, Anne, too, was unable to give a definitive answer, but thought it was largely due to the rapport that Logue had developed with the future King when his patient was still a young man, rather than to any particular treatment. ‘Anyone can do tongue twisters and breathing exercises, but he was a first class psychotherapist,’ she said. ‘He was a super good daddy where George V had been a ghastly one.’

‘[Lionel] would never talk about what he did. But when you look at what happened and what he was dealing with, that can be the only answer. The King had heaps of other people who had been no use to him. Why else did he stay with him for such a long time?’

Notes

1
John W. Wheeler-Bennett,
King George VI, His Life and Reign
, London: Macmillan, 1958, p. 400.

2
Ibid
., p. 312.

3
Time
, 16 May 1938.

4
Quoted in Joy Damousi, ‘“The Australian has a lazy way of talking”: Australian Character and Accent, 1920s–1940s’, in Joy Damousi and Desley Deacon (eds), T
alking and Listening in the Age of Modernity: Essays on the History of Sound
, Canberra: ANU Press, 2007, pp. 83–96.

5
Lionel Logue papers, 25 March 1911.

6
Sunday Times
(Perth), 20 August 1911.

7
West Australian
, 27 May 1912.

8
Sun
(Kalgoorlie), 27 September 1914.

9
The following dialogue is taken from an account by John Gordon in the
Sunday Express
.

10
Marcel E. Wingate,
Stuttering: A Short History of a Curious Disorder
, Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey, 1997, p.11.

11
Ibid
., p. xx.

12
Star
, 11 January 1926.

13
Pittsburgh Press
, 1 December 1928.

14
Reported in the
Daily Express
, Friday 21 August 1925 and reproduced in full in
Radio Times
on 25 September. The BBC became the British Broadcasting Corporation only in 1926.

15
John Gore,
King George V
, London: John Murray.

16
Sarah Bradford,
The Reluctant King: The Life and Reign of George VI 1895–1952
, New York: St Martin’s Press, 1990, p.18.

17
Ibid
., p. 18.

18
Ibid.
, p. 22.

19
Ibid
., p. 40.

20
Ibid
., p. 33.

21
Wheeler-Bennett,
op. cit.
, p. 42.

22
Bradford,
op. cit.
, p. 48.

23
Lambert and Hamilton quoted in
ibid
., p. 57.

24
Ibid.
, p. 70.

25
Robert Rhodes James,
A Spirit Undaunted: The Political Role Of George VI
, London: Little, Brown, 1998, p. 92.

26
Davidson papers quoted in
ibid
., p. 96.

27
Pittsburgh Press
, 1 December 1928.

28
Wheeler-Bennett,
op. cit.
, p. 207.

29
Ibid.
, p. 208.

30
Ibid
.

31
Taylor Darbyshire,
The Duke of York: an intimate & authoritative life-story of the second son of their majesties, the King and Queen by one who has had special facilities, and published with the approval of his Royal Highness
, London: Hutchinson and Co., 1929, p. 90.

32
Michael Thornton, email correspondence with the author, July 2010.

33
Darbyshire,
op.cit.
, p. 22.

34
Scotsman
, 2 December 1926.

35
Lionel Logue papers, 5 January 1927.

36
Wheeler-Bennett,
op. cit
., p. 215.

37
Ibid
., p. 216.

38
Lionel Logue papers, 25 January 1927.

39
Ibid.
, 14 February 1927.

40
Wheeler-Bennett,
op. cit.
, p. 218.

41
Reginald Pound,
Harley Street
, London: Michael Joseph, 1967, p. 157.

42
Wheeler-Bennett, o
p. cit.
, p. 227.

43
Ibid
., p. 228.

44
Ibid
., p. 230.

45
Lionel Logue papers.

46
Wheeler-Bennett,
op. cit
., p. 230.

47
Lionel Logue papers.

48
Ibid.

49
Pound,
op. cit
., p. 157.

50
Evening Standard
(London), 12 June 1928;
North-Eastern Daily Gazette
, 13 July 1928;
Evening News
(London), 24 October 1928;
Daily Sketch
, 28 November 1928;
Yorkshire Evening News
, 4 December 1928.

51
Lionel Logue papers, 15 December 1928.

52
Wheeler-Bennett,
op. cit.
, p. 251.

53
This and the following extracts from the Logue–Duke correspondence in the Lionel Logue papers.

54
Wheeler-Bennett,
op. cit
., p. 258.

55
Lionel Logue papers, 12 February 1929.

56
Ibid
., 16 and 23 May 1934.

57
Wheeler-Bennett,
op. cit
., p. 263.

58
James Lees-Milne,
The Enigmatic Edwardian: The Life of Reginald, 2nd Viscount Esher
, London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1986, p. 301, quoted in David Loades,
Princes of Wales: Royal Heirs in Waiting
, Kew: The National Archives, 2008, p. 228.

59
Diana Vreeland,
DV
, New York: Knopf, 1984, quoted in Loades,
op. cit.
, p. 230.

60
HRH The Duke of Windsor,
A King’s Story
, London: Cassell, 1951, p. 254–5.

61
Quoted in Christopher Warwick,
Abdication
, London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1986.

62
See Michael Bloch,
The Reign and Abdication of King Edward VIII
, London: Bantam Press, 1990.

63
Time
, 9 November 1936.

64
Philip Ziegler, ‘Churchill and the Monarchy,
History Today
, Vol. 43, 1 March 1993.

65
Lionel Logue papers, 28 October 1936.

66
William Shawcross,
Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother: The Official Biography
, London: Macmillan, 2009, p. 376.

67
Rhodes James,
op. cit
., p. 112.

68
Ibid.
, p. 113.

69
Shawcross,
op. cit.
, p. 380.

70
Lionel Logue papers, 14 December 1936.