Cultural depictions of George VI

When the living dead are threatening to overrun the British Isles and the rest of the world, Queen Elizabeth II refuses to flee from Windsor Castle in Berkshire, England to the strongholds established in Ireland or Scotland.

When she is pleaded with to reconsider, Elizabeth says "The highest of distinctions is service to others," quoting her father, who said that to explain why he would not leave Britain for any safe zone, namely Canada, during World War II.

George is a significant character in Michael Dobbs' 2003 novel Winston's War, and Len Deighton's alternate history novel SS-GB, in which he is imprisoned during a Nazi occupation of Britain and killed during an escape attempt.

In the alternate history novel Fatherland by Robert Harris, George VI is deposed when Nazi Germany conquers the United Kingdom and the British Empire in the early 1940s.

Edward's younger brother and heir presumptive, Albert, Duke of York (who would have become George VI if the monarchy had not been abolished), is given the deed to the Royal Hotel in Geneva.