Show don't tell ,,,,,,, and the King's Speech

'Show don't tell', is a mantra which all we writers are told again and again but it's often difficult to do. So often I find myself writing a whole paragraph or even a whole page and then realising I haven't shown at all, just kept on telling and have to go back to revise. But today, I heard a fascinating radio programme about the history of cash - coins and notes - and there was a lightbulb moment which demonstrated exactly what people mean by that phrase. What's that got to do with the King's Speech you wonder? Well, they were talking about Edward VIII, the king who abdicated to marry the woman he was crazy about - the divorcee, Wallace Simpson. He was the one who left his brother, the one with the stammer to have to take the crown. The newspapers often gave Edward a bad press saying he was vain and self obsessed but I often wondered if that was just sour grapes at him deserting his duty. However in the radio programme they talked about how on coins and notes, the monarch of the day always faces the same way. Also that tradition is that when a new monarch appears they are always portrayed as facing the opposite way to the monarch before. So, as our Queen always faces to the left, when the next monarch comes on board he will face, by tradition, to the right. However, when Edward VIII was due to be king although it was his turn to face to the right, he had all the currency minted with him posing facing left BECAUSE..... his profile was more handsome facing that way. All that tradition was knocked aside for his vanity. That to me was a perfect 'show don't tell' story! He must have been a bit of a twonk.....