The "quack" who saved a king... Featuring a star-studded cast of Academy Award® winners and nominees, The King's Speech won the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award and is generating plenty of Oscar buzz. This official film tie-in is written by London Sunday Times journalist Peter Conradi and Mark Logue--grandson of Lionel Logue, one of the movie's central characters. It's the eve of World War II, and King Edward VIII has abdicated the throne of England to marry the woman he loves. Never has the nation needed a leader more. But the new monarch, George VI--father of today's Queen Elizabeth II--is painfully shy and cursed with a terrible stammer. How can he inspire confidence in his countrymen when he cannot even speak to them? Help arrives in speech therapist Logue, who not only is a commoner, but Australian to boot. Will he be able to give King George his voice? The King's Speech tells an inspiring tale of triumph over adversity and the unlikely friendship between a reluctant king and the charismatic subject who saved the throne.

本书讲述了英国国王乔治六世和他的语言治疗师莱纳尔?罗格的故事。乔治六世国王就是那位为了美人而放弃江山的爱德华八世国王的弟弟。二战前夕，希特勒野心勃勃，风流成性的爱德华为了娶辛普森夫人而弃整个国家于不顾，政府又威胁要集体辞职，爱德华最终选择了退位。如此情势之下，其胞弟约克公爵继位。登基之前这位公爵口齿不利落的形象深入人心，日后也正是这同一个人却不期然成为英国历史上最伟大的国王之一。自身缺陷与外在情势交迫之下，乔治六世的前途可谓晦明未知，罗格的介入给这位英王的生命注入了怎样一席华彩。两人关系中许多细节内幕首次得到披露。本书揭开了两个男人之间持续一生的不平凡的友谊，以及国王妻子也即几年前去世的伊丽莎白王太后在两人关系中的纽带作用。为了挽救丈夫的名誉和地位，是她找来了罗格，开启了这一段历史。 《国王的演讲》所深入的是一个极度私密的空间。有关这位他日君王因为口吃顽疾在其父乔治五世手中所受到的种种精神折磨，罗格的日记中也首次有所披露。对英国王室的描述从未有过如此私人化的角度，而且是在那些危难重重的岁月里。而引领我们深入进去的正是这位澳大利亚平民，此段经历被其视为生平最为珍视的记忆。