The King's War by Peter Conradi & Peter Conradi

Author:Peter Conradi & Peter Conradi
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Epub3
Publisher: Pegasus Books

Despite the crucial rule he had played in helping the future King since their first meeting in his Harley Street consulting room in 1926, Logue had been careful to maintain a low profile over the years. For those who served royalty, discretion was vital. Logue never gave interviews and was largely successful in keeping his name out of the newspapers. An exception to this had come with the publication in 1929 of an authorized biography of the Duke of York, as he was then, by Taylor Darbyshire, a journalist from the Australian Press Association, who had accompanied the royal couple on their high-profile trip to Australia and New Zealand in 1927. The book, which was widely quoted from by the British press, went into great detail about all aspects of the Duke’s life, but it was the pages that Darbyshire devoted to his stammer and Logue’s work in tackling it that were of most interest to the newspapers. Under headlines such as ‘How the Duke Won Through’, ‘Defect in Speech Overcome by His Pluck’ and ‘Man who Cured the Duke’, they ran details of what one paper called his ‘youthful struggle to fit himself to take his place in public life’.

Describing the Duke as ‘cured’ of his stutter was wishful thinking – as was clear to anyone who listened to him struggle his way through a speech or a broadcast a decade later. Yet such was the deference that continued to be shown towards the royal family by the press that his affliction – and Logue’s continued work to help him tackle it – remained largely out of bounds. This became even more the case after he succeeded to the throne, even though the newspapers back in Australia could not resist publishing occasional titbits about the life of one of their most famous sons.

In September 1942, however, Logue allowed himself a rare moment in the limelight when he appeared on a BBC radio programme called On My Selection. The weekly show featured an Australian or New Zealander living in Britain who was asked to choose the records they would take back home with them to remind them of their time in the mother country. Its format was similar to that of Desert Island Discs, which debuted that January and was still running more than seven decades later.

Because of the time difference with Australia, the programme, which went out live, was to be broadcast very early in the morning. A few days earlier, Logue received a letter from Cecil Madden, an executive from the BBC’s External Services, with an unlikely offer: would he like to spend the night before in Madden’s box in the Criterion Theatre in Piccadilly Circus? The theatre had been requisitioned during wartime by the BBC; its auditorium, being underground, was an ideal studio safe from the Blitz. From there it was only a short walk to Broadcasting House, which would ensure Logue would be in the studio in good time for the broadcast. ‘It’s a bit unusual

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