The King Maker: The Man Who Saved George VI

Geordie Greig

Apr 2014 · Open Road Media

About this ebook

“A treasure trove that throws new and entertaining light” on the friendship between the WWII-era king and the man who inspired The King’s Speech (The Times, London).

Louis Greig, a war hero and rugby international, entered the privileged world of the British royal family as mentor, physician, and friend to a young and hesitant Prince Albert, the man who became King George VI and whose challenges were so vividly brought to life in the award-winning film The King’s Speech. Greig’s influence helped to guide the prince from a stammering, shy schoolboy to become one of the most respected constitutional monarchs, seeing the nation through the Second World War and bringing the monarchy closer to the people. Geordie Greig, grandson of Louis Greig, has drawn on private family papers and public archives to reveal an intimate friendship that lasted almost half a century.

About the author

Geordie Greig attended Eton College and St. Peter’s College, Oxford, before beginning a career in journalism. He has worked at the Daily Mail, Sunday Today, and the Sunday Times, where he became the arts correspondent and later the American correspondent based in New York. He returned to London to become the Sunday Times literary editor. He is now the editor of the Mail on Sunday and remains a director of Independent Print, Ltd., and the London Evening Standard.
 
Members of Greig’s father’s family have been royal courtiers for three generations. Greig’s grandfather, Louis Greig, is the subject of his biographical work, The Kingmaker: The Man Who Saved George VI, which recounts the life of Greig and details his time as mentor, physician, and friend of the young Prince Albert, who became King George VI—and the subject of a hit movie, The King’s Speech.