KING GEORGE V MEMOIR

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 103, 3 May 1941, Page 15

KING GEORGE V MEMOIR

.The memoir of "King George, ;y,'' by John Gore, undertaken at theVr^quest of the King and/Queen Mar£, has just been published' by John • Murray. The time has not yet .arrived for a full historical record, but it was 'felt..by...their Majesties; that an effort should be made before 'it was too late to collect some. of t the memories and impressions of the Royal Family and intimate friends and others who had been closely in touch with the. late King in various spheres. The result is a character study based not only on all this contemporary : evidence but more particularly on the King's own journals covering yalmost every day of his life from the age of twelve until his death;

In acknowledging his debt to these journals—"a simple narrative, restrained, unadorned, and accurate"—the biographer records that he accepted th6m as an- indication of the style in which the memoir should be dressed. "1 have tried to keep but features of royal biographies and Court memoirs which' he, disliked and distrusted, adulation, gossip, indiscretions, exaggeration, and dramatisation. I have tried to show him as the frank, simple, honest, and good man he was, and to leave him to speak for 'himself yin words and :'ac~tipns/* -:'r■•"■■' -, .•'■ '■■■ '"''-..■ I Queen Mary read the typescript and the proof-sheets and supplied many suggestions and much information.