This book, based on letters and diaries, is a good complement
to the film,
The King's Speech, filling
in a lot of the background to the film; however, Lionel's tendency to
fawn over his 'betters', especially the Queen Mother, does at times
become both irritating and even embarrassing. The
book was written and published after the film was made,
and, while the film
concentrates on a very short period in the lives of Lionel Logue
(speech therapist) and King George VI, the book attempts to give a
reasonably detailed picture of the lives of both men. At times, the
reliance on diary entries, can become a trifle stilted and, in
places, the book reads very much as a diary or a journal;
nevertheless, as a source of
information, not only about the two main characters but also about
the times themselves, it is an interesting and, in many ways, a
valuable book. 