Charles Higham (1) (1931–2012)

This book was actually a lot more interesting than I thought I would be. I only read it for Monaco for my "around the world books" challenge, but I found myself caught up in the back-stabbing, intrigue and many colorful characters in the ruling Grimaldi family. I am related to plenty of back-stabbers but the people De Massy describes make my family look positively tranquil! It was like a soap opera. The only good person in the whole story, it would seem, was Grace Kelly, whom I felt deeply show more sorry for.

If you've got to read something about Monaco, or something about modern royal families, this might as well be it. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. show less

94

Interesting - vivid, mixed life

Wallis, the Duchess of Windsor, was one of the most famous women in history, the American divorcee who captured the King of England, Edward VIII, and cost him his throne. Until Charles Higham's 1.3 million-copy bestseller, much of her life was a glamorous mystery. Now, fifteen years later, major new documentary evidence, classified at the time, makes for a book far more sensational than the original bestseller. Drawing from long-suppressed archives in France, show more England, and the United States, Higham has uncovered the duchess's passionate affair with a top-ranking political figure, the duke's romantic involvement with a male equerry, the secret radio broadcasts the couple made to Hitler, and the blackmail plot in Paris that almost brought them-and the British royal family-to ruin. show less

A biography of Wallis Warfield Simpson, Duchess of Windsor. It is extremely thorough, and focuses a lot of attention on the Windsors activities during World War II. I was stunned to find out how many famous Americans were Nazi sympathizers (although I suppose I shouldn't be). This is NOT a biography where the author presents the facts and lets the reader draw his/her own conclusions. His opinions are obvious throughout the book, and there is quite a bit of conjecture at some points. I would show more definitely recommend it for all the information, but the author had an annoying habit of consistently combining sentences with a semi-colon, which distracted my reading considerably. show less