07 September 2012

King Edward VIII & King George VI

We're at the era of history where King Edward VIII abdicated so he could marry Mrs. Wallis Simpson, a twice-divorced American; and his brother, George, becomes King.
The abdication topic is causing some very interesting conversations with Bobs.... and Grandad has a decided opinion about that event in history ;-)

I couldn't locate (easily or quickly!!!) a book detailing the abdication, writtten in a more story styled format - that wasn't seriously *adult* in tone - so we've stuck with some non-fiction references, and online articles.

The BBC have some interesting extra's to listen to and read through.

The natural progression after the abdication, for us, was to study the coronation of King George VI.
One of the items we've covered was his struggle to over come his stutter.  As a family we listened to our library's downloadable copy of the BBC's (short!) audio reproduction of background events leading up to his coronation speech.  You can listen to a sample of that here.

King Georg VI's actual  Coronation speech  can be heard via youtube.

We're watching through a BBC production on you tube about George VI: The Reluctant King
(Sorry, I cannot vouch for any follow on videos or side panel content that may show up from you tube :/  )

I slotted this side study in between SOTW4 chapters 26 & 27 ... we like to have to more Brit hist added to our schedule than the fleeting amount our American history schedulers, Susan Bauer, and Sonlight, prescribed for us ;-)

Here is King George VI's speech leading up to WWII.
WWII  is our next topic of study, after our scheduled week off.
Next week, for me, is a solid week of spring cleaning and resorting.

2 comments:

DeliveringGrace said...

Really interesting especially the links to the speeches. I recently read "The king's speech" which was written by Lionel Logue's grandson-a fascinating read.
Not sure whether it is suitable for children-I didn't read it with them in mind. It doesn't have the swearing that I'm told is in the film but they might find a whole book on the subject of the King's speech problems a bit long.

Chelle said...

Thank you (!!!)
for leaving a comment/review about that book .. I've been eyeing it for myself. I'd much rather read a book than view a movie ☺

(I think my children are done with King George VI & his speeches ☺☺☺☺
though *I* would still have liked to have unearthed a middles level book on King Edward VIII)