I’ve just started some extended leave. What to do? – I have slept a lot and then,\u00a0compliments of a Christmas gift of movie tickets, went with my bride and friends to see ‘The King’s Speech’.<\/p>\n
‘The King’s Speech’\u00a0is thought provoking and excellently acted. A triumph of the underdog – two of them in fact: The King and the Australian speech therapist.<\/p>\n
See, The King’s Speech official website with film extracts<\/a>. A good review, here<\/a> which concludes,<\/p>\n Whatever we may think of the monarchy as an institution for 21st-century Australia, it is this sense of tidal historical forces at work that gives The King’s Speech its resonance, its moral grandeur. More was at stake than one man’s peace of mind or the rival claims of love and duty. The film works as historical drama and as a story of personal salvation. On both counts it succeeds magnificently.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It is inspiring to engage through the very Australian spirit of the speech therapist with King George VI <\/a>as they labour to\u00a0overcome the King’s debilitating stutter.<\/p>\n In due course King George VI\u00a0would\u00a0bring to the world’s attention\u00a0Marie Louise Haskins\u2019 poem ‘God Knows’ (popular title is ‘The Gate of the Year’) from her collection\u00a0\u2018The Desert\u2019 (1908)\u00a0as Great Britain faced its first Christmas at war with Hitler’s Germany. The quote used by King George VI\u00a0in 1939,\u00a0<\/p>\n “The Gate of the Year”<\/strong> is the popular name given to a poem by Minnie Louise Haskins. The title given to it by the author was “God Knows”<\/strong>. She studied and then taught at the London School of Economics in the first half of the twentieth century.<\/p>\n The poem, published in 1908, was part of a collection titled The Desert<\/em>. It caught the public attention and the popular imagination, when Queen Elizabeth handed a copy to her husband, King George VI, and he quoted it in his 1939 Christmas broadcast to the British Empire.<\/span><\/p>\n The poem was widely acclaimed as inspirational, reaching its first mass audience in the early days of the Second World War. Its words remained a source of comfort to the Queen for the rest of her life, and she had its words engraved on brass plaques and fixed to the gates of the King George VI Memorial Chapel at Windsor Castle, where the King was interred. Queen Elizabeth was also buried here in 2002, and the words of “The Gate of the Year” were read out at her state funeral.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n An inspiring story and a great film.<\/p>\n PS Late news, Geoffrey Rush wins BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’ve just started some extended leave. What to do? – I have slept a lot and then,\u00a0compliments of a Christmas gift of movie tickets, went with my bride and friends to see ‘The King’s Speech’. ‘The King’s Speech’\u00a0is thought provoking … Continue reading