The Duchess of Windsor: The Secret Life

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, 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 show more 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 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.

This revised edition benefits from the release of previously closed archives in the UK, Germany, Russia, France, and elsewhere. For those interested in the politics and behind the scenes maneuvering of World War II, particularly the early years, this is a must read. It presents the pro-Nazi views and secret activities of the Windsors with fascinating precision.

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* Inherited from Mum's shelves.