What is in the book
He was the second son, the shy one with the stammer, raised to be a loyal younger brother and nothing more. Then his brother gave up the throne, and the job nobody had trained him for landed on him.
George VI never wanted the crown. He wrote in his own diary that he broke down and sobbed when he knew it was coming. Within three years he was the voice of an empire at war, and every broadcast was a fight with his own words.
This Turbo History short tells his story straight, from the record rather than the film:
- The boy born on the anniversary of Prince Albert's death, and the naval cadet who came bottom of his class
- Jutland in 1916, a prince on the gun turret of HMS Collingwood
- The disastrous Wembley speech of 1925 and the Australian speech therapist, Lionel Logue, who taught him to manage his stammer (managed, never cured)
- The abdication of Edward VIII, seen from the brother who had to pick up the pieces
- Munich, the man he did not want as Prime Minister, the bombs on Buckingham Palace and the George Cross for Malta
- The end of the Indian Empire, the new Commonwealth, and the cancer that was never named in public
He never beat the stammer. He is remembered, above all, for a speech.
Read it in under an hour. Free on Kindle Unlimited.
These are not academic books. You will not find footnotes to chase, family trees to memorise, or ten pages on the logistics of a treaty. Every book ends with a page of proper ones to go to next if you want that depth. If you want the story and the big picture in an hour, you are home.
This book is free sometimes. Want to know when?
George VI goes free on Amazon from time to time, along with the rest of the series. Leave your email and we will tell you the moment it does.
More from the series
One figure or one event per book. Under an hour each.
