Book News November 2011

One of our most fascinating books in Encounters this month is The King's Speech by Mark Logue and Peter Conradi. Mark is the grandson of Lionel Logue, the now famous Australian speech therapist who helped England's King George VI overcome his fear of public speaking and his social shyness, caused by his crippling stammer. Logue not only devoted his knowledge and skills to the King, he also became his friend—to the extent of spending Christmas day at Sandringham in 1937 to lend support when the King gave his first-ever Christmas address to England and the Empire.

 

 

The King's Speech was also, of course, an Academy Award-winning film starring Australian Geoffrey Rush and Englishman Colin Firth. Now we've heard that the award-winning scriptwriter of the film, David Seidler, has written a stage play of the same name, which will have its first production next February in Guildford, England. It will then tour England through mid-March. If a London season of the play follows, then Broadway becomes the next possibility. It is directed by Adrian Noble and will star British actor Charles Edwards as the King, with Australian actor Jonathan Hyde as Lionel Logue.