Kate Auspitz

What if the Duchess of Windsor, Wallis Simpson, had been carefully manoeuvred into position by key men in power in England (as well as France, Italy and the US) in order to take Edward off of the throne because he would have been incapable of handling an impending war with Germany? What if, rather than being simply a calculating courtesan who set her cap with the hope of exchanging it for a crown, she was also a somewhat unwitting knight in a carefully calculated zugzwang to remove Edward as show more king, with his Nazi sympathies, pronounced racist tendencies and unfortunate stupidity? Here is the basic premise of “The War Memoir of (HRH) Wallis, Duchess of Windsor” by Kate Auspitz and for this reader, she really made it work.

Having read about characters like Duff Gordon, Lindbergh, Somerset Maugham in other histories (particularly in books about the Mitfords, as well as their letters), it was fascinating to see Auspitz’s take on the role these men performed prior to and during WWII. The author’s knowledge of politics and history has served her well in this work of fiction, as she seemingly effortlessly ties in the events and facts of both in this period, making it all seem not only plausible but probable. I particularly enjoyed her making mincemeat out of Lindbergh.

Auspitz doesn’t attempt to whitewash Simpson: she is shallow, vain, sadly under-educated, very sexual and desperately ambitious. But she does engender our sympathy by the end of the book for a woman who ended up trapped in a marriage with a man who was impotent, not very bright nor particularly manly - definitely not the man a woman like Wallis really needed. That he adored her could not redress this imbalance in the end, no matter how many jewels he gave her. I remember seeing an interview many years ago with the Windsors in their Paris home: the Duke said something along the lines of ‘we’ve had a good go at it, haven’t we, darling’ and looked beseechingly at Wallis for confirmation. She didn’t reply, just smiled like a sphinx. I remember thinking at the time that she didn’t particularly think so. Auspitz’s story takes that impression a tantalising step further: is it possible her premise could be true? I haven’t got a clue but it was fascinating fun to think about it in this clever book. show less

This fictionalized memoir of one of the most discussed, analyzed and intriguing women of the 20th Century is a fascinating read! Taking a different slant to the established historical view, author Kate Auspitz argues that Simpson was ‘working’ for the British government, to ensure David Windsor would not remain King. He had known Nazi sympathies, and had he been King of England during this period, World War II may have had a very different look, and outcome.
Wallis Simpson, of course, show more takes a starring role in this novel. She is self-obsessed and vain, yet the details of her life are strangely compelling (her Chanel dresses, life in Bermuda away from society, and the regular drinks on the verandah with the powerful people of the day). She is also shown as having a wicked sense of humour, and to be far more intelligent and perceptive than her husband.
This is a fun, quick read, and readers must remind themselves frequently that this is fiction, and not the actual found memoirs of this interesting woman. show less

This was an unexpectedly fun book. I started out being a bit sceptical as initially the narrator is unappealing, so self-centred, vain, and manipulative. But as the book evolves so does her character and one appreciates how she worked(?) her way up in society. The book is fun through the completely outrageous things she says, such as "A college can't tell the King that his heir has the IQ of a radish." No P.C. for Wallis! There were many times I found myself laughing out loud. I found the show more famous, influential, powerful people Wallis came in contact with and interacted with throughout the book interesting as well, Somerset Maugham, P.G. Wodehouse, Coco Chanel, Hitler, the Lindberghs, Joseph Kennedy, Harold Nicholson to name a few. Her opinions of these people and conversations with them are entertaining and edifying to say the least.

The War Memoir of (HRH) Wallis, Duchess of Windsor (as she so desired to be called) is a fascinating account, however fictional, of a dramatic, terrible point in our history, from a very unique perspective and I enjoyed it tremendously. show less

I must admit I rather naively believed the jacket blurb that this book would be an actual memoir. It turned out instead to be an entertaining imagining of the life of Wallis Simpson, thoroughly researched and backed up with photographs and footnotes supporting key events in her life. I had to keep flipping to the back of the book to read the footnotes and would have preferred them to be at the bottom of the page, but perhaps that would have interrupted the narrative too much.

Since I had no show more prior knowledge of or interest in Wallis Simpson beyond knowing that King Edward VIII abdicated his crown to marry her, I was rather shocked at her portrayal as shallow, vain, uneducated and amoral, with utter disdain for her supposed great love, calling him "boysy" and "Lightning Brain", and manipulating him shamelessly. At one point she says he has the "IQ of a radish". In this story, she only marries him because she is convinced by others that it would be good for the country to remove him from office because of his Nazi sympathies and the impending war. In fact, the great love of her life is someone else, Count Galeazzo Ciano, son-in-law of Mussolini, with whom she has affair both before and after her marriage to the Duke of Windsor.

The Duchess seems only to care about her clothing and jewels and social engagements, and the war is just an inconvience to her life, but she does agree, while in "exile" in the Bahamas, to send disinformation to the German foreign minister, a man she despises but who apparently adores her and showers her with roses.

The book is quite fanciful, and at the beginning I was wondering why I continued reading it, since the characters were quite unsympathetic and downright loathsome. However, as I got further into the story, I found myself wondering how it was all going to end, and curious about how the war affected their lives. It certainly seems that in snagging "the most eligible bachelor in the world", the ambitions of Wallis were thwarted by other royals who would not allow her to be queen, and she ended up living a parasitic and meaningless life with a man who bored her silly.

I can recommend this book for its humour and for interesting me enough to want to read some historical non-fiction accounts of their lives, to see if they were really that appalling. show less