Rating: WORTHY!
After Edward the eighth abdicated so he could marry American double-divorcee Wallace Simpson, his younger brother Albert, who had never expected to ascend to the throne, found himself King. He took the name George (the sixth as it happened) in order to offer some continuity to the nation after what was at that time, an appallingly scandalous event. Lionel Logue was hired to help King Al overcome his stammering, as it turned out, so he could get through the coronation, and later make a rallying speech to the nation at the advent of World War 2.0, although none of this was known when the two first met. Logue succeeded admirably.
The audio book is read by Simon Vance, who does an excellent job despite being an actor. He gives a hint of voice characterization for various people who appear in the story, such a King George, Lionel Logue, Winston Churchill, and so on, without over-doing it. It was refreshing to hear and an object lesson for other would-be readers. The audio begins with the actual speech George 6.0 made after it became clear that a second major war with Germany was unavoidable. The story takes off after that with the author detailing how he came to be interested in all of this.
He is closely-related to Lionel Logue, but while he had grown-up knowing of this relative, he had very little interest in him or what he did, until he became older and realized what an important role Lionel had played in the nation's history. At this point he went on a quest to find out more and to uncover diaries and letters, some of which were written to Lionel by the king himself over the course of a relationship that went on beyond their speech therapy relationship, right up to the point where the king died of lung cancer.
This was a great book, and it's also a great movie even though the two are really very different. I recommend both.
