Books on The Duke and Duchess of Windsor


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Duchess

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started reading "The Uncommon Life of the Duchess of Windsor a few days ago. while the author - Greg King - starts off by saying that many previous books relied heavily on the negative "rumours" about Wallis and his (of course) relies on verifiable facts i'm finding it a little favorable. he hasn't yet said anything negative about her or the situation between the King and her but it's still early in the book. all in all i'm finding interesting so far.
 
Duchess said:
started reading "The Uncommon Life of the Duchess of Windsor a few days ago. while the author - Greg King - starts off by saying that many previous books relied heavily on the negative "rumours" about Wallis and his (of course) relies on verifiable facts i'm finding it a little favorable. he hasn't yet said anything negative about her or the situation between the King and her but it's still early in the book. all in all i'm finding interesting so far.

I wasn't aware of this book-thanks for the heads up. Now, I'm looking forward to it. :)
 
i'm halfway thru the book and it's very pro Wallis. i've always thought that the whole episode couldn't be entirely her fault so it's sort of refreshing in that sense. the disappointing thing is that his family so totally turned their backs on him when he really could have used their support. their stiffness and die hard dedication to duty at the cost of family members is really very sad.
 
I think Wallis deserves a pro-Wallis book. It's about time someone said something nice about her.
 
The Book

I've read the book as well and found it to be just as Pro Wallis as the other books were very anti Wallis. I am sure the true story is probably a little of both..its too bad that story will never be told.
 
you're right Zonk. the truth lies somewhere between but it's nice to read something positive as all i've ever heard about "that woman" was so negative.
 
I'm seeing some evidence in recent royal books that the uncritical attitude of royal writers toward the Queen Mother may be changing. If people can look at the Edward-Wallis situation more objectively rather than through the lens of "The Queen Mother despised her so she must be despicable" attitude, we may eventually get a more unbiassed outlook on that whole episode from Edward's affairs while Prince of Wales to his and his wife's lifelong banishment from Britain.

I read that book a while back so I don't recall the details, but I remember finding it very interesting although I thought that sometimes it went a bit too far to make Wallis look good. She must have had some good points, which you'd never know about to read most of the offerings out there, but she had to have had her share of faults.
 
i thought that too Elspeth. at times i'm finding it boring how the author just gushes about her but as i mentioned it's nice to read something positive about her. now that both the Duke and Duchess are gone, as well as the QM i wonder if certain things will be made public about these relationships. i wouldn't be surprised if nothing does come out though.
 
interesting how the Duchess and Diana were similar. both took on causes that weren't fashionable, both were fashion icons and both were hung out to dry by the royal family. i've never read any other book about the Duchess but from reading this one i find i really like her. before reading this i'd sort of thought of her as a gold digger who never got the ultimate prize she'd wanted most but now i find that that's not at all what she was after. i wonder if this generation of windsors will have a "wallis" or "diana"?
 
We can only pray that we don't. Although I'd say that Wallis and Diana were poles apart and each one would have loathed the other. Why? They both wanted to be centre of attention and IMO, each one would have seen the other as competition.
 
What was Wallis's full name? And isn't Wallis usually a man's name? I always thought it strange that her name was Wallis.
 
RachelD said:
What was Wallis's full name? And isn't Wallis usually a man's name? I always thought it strange that her name was Wallis.
She was born Bessiewallis Warfield. Wallis was her father's middle name, and Bess was the name of an aunt she was quite close to.

I once met an elderly man who danced with her at parties when she was married to her first husband, a naval aviator. He really liked her.
 
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Bessiewallis. Wallis can be Wallace for a man.
 
iowabelle said:
She was born Bessiewallis Warfield. Wallis was her father's middle name, and Bess was the name of an aunt she was quite close to. I once met an elderly man who danced with her at parties when she was married to her first husband, a naval aviator. He really liked her.
Ohhh.....o.k. I had never heard her full name. Thanks!
 
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BeatrixFan said:
We can only pray that we don't. Although I'd say that Wallis and Diana were poles apart and each one would have loathed the other. Why? They both wanted to be centre of attention and IMO, each one would have seen the other as competition.

see i'm not getting that from this book. while i admit that it's definitely pro wallis, i'm getting that she didn't want to be the centre of attention. i don't think they'd have seen each other as competition. the age difference would have helped to avoid any competition. on the contrary i think that diana and wallis would have got on very well as they both shared similar traits - both had a great sense of humour and style and both were generous.
 
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Interesting. From the Duchess's memoirs, I got the impression that she wanted to be a bit of a star but only if David was behind her.
 
Elspeth said:
I read that book a while back so I don't recall the details, but I remember finding it very interesting although I thought that sometimes it went a bit too far to make Wallis look good. She must have had some good points, which you'd never know about to read most of the offerings out there, but she had to have had her share of faults.

"The Woman He Loved" by Ralph G. Martin was a fairly balanced book, I thought. Martin pointed out many of the Duchess' faults, but teamed that with positive aspects of her personality and behaviour. He did a good job at showing the human beings behind the legend.
 
elspeth i agree that she definitely had her faults and that this book leans hard toward making her look good.

sassie...i must look around for that book. i've heard of it but never read it. thanks for the heads up.
 
again, thanks sassie.

getting near the end of the book and it's getting quite sad. 2 lively, loving people near the end of their lives and both in failing health. never having received an apology or an olive branch from his own family must have been the saddest thing for the Duke.
 
Well, the Queen did visit him in Paris before his death and even though he was in extreme pain, he insisted on being dressed in a suit and on sitting by the bed. He bowed to the Queen who told him that he didn't need to and he apparantly said, "You are my Queen as well as my dear Lillibet". Very touching indeed.
 
yes she did visit him but it seems it was too little too late. so sad that this family is so set in it's ways and finds it so hard to say "i was wrong" or "i'm sorry". from what i've read, and i admit that there's sides to every story, he could have been very useful especially during the war years.
 
BeatrixFan said:
Well, the Queen did visit him in Paris before his death and even though he was in extreme pain, he insisted on being dressed in a suit and on sitting by the bed. He bowed to the Queen who told him that he didn't need to and he apparantly said, "You are my Queen as well as my dear Lillibet". Very touching indeed.

That is just too touching! I can actually picture him doing that in my head.
 
Duchess said:
he could have been very useful especially during the war years.

Declassified government papers reveal a very pro Hitler Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Probably naive, but a definite [political] liability to Britain during the war and an embarassment thereafter. Out of sight was out of mind, and those questions were never openly adressed during their lifetime.
Time has been seen as the great healer.
 
MARG said:
Declassified government papers reveal a very pro Hitler Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Probably naive, but a definite [political] liability to Britain during the war and an embarassment thereafter. Out of sight was out of mind, and those questions were never openly adressed during their lifetime.
Time has been seen as the great healer.

True, but perhaps the Duke would have been less pro-Hitler if his brother had utilized him more on behalf of their country during the war years. The Duke could be incredibly naive, and it's certainly possible that he could have been swayed away from Hitler with some inluence from British ministers.
 
sassie said:
True, but perhaps the Duke would have been less pro-Hitler if his brother had utilized him more on behalf of their country during the war years. The Duke could be incredibly naive, and it's certainly possible that he could have been swayed away from Hitler with some inluence from British ministers.

even if he was naive about Hitler , she wasnt naive she new what she was doing !! He was a push over and she was far to pushy! I think they did the best thing kept them away .
 
sm1939 said:
even if he was naive about Hitler , she wasnt naive she new what she was doing !! He was a push over and she was far to pushy! I think they did the best thing kept them away .

see this is what i mean...while some people say that she was pushy and overbearing, this book says she wasn't like that. i guess it depends on who wrote what as to what you choose to believe.
 
Duchess said:
see this is what i mean...while some people say that she was pushy and overbearing, this book says she wasn't like that. i guess it depends on who wrote what as to what you choose to believe.

I have never read, in the biographies about her, that Wallis was pushy. Disciplined and confident, yes, but dignified as opposed to pushy and overbearing. In fact, it has been widely written that the structure of their life together was more in accordance with HIS wishes than hers. During the abdication crisis, it was the Duke who determined the path he took, not Wallis. So, I agree, the 'pushy' label is confusing, and I can't help but wonder if the people who knew the Duchess and used that label to describe her didn't have a personal axe to grind.
 
MARG said:
Declassified government papers reveal a very pro Hitler Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Probably naive, but a definite [political] liability to Britain during the war and an embarassment thereafter. Out of sight was out of mind, and those questions were never openly adressed during their lifetime.
Time has been seen as the great healer.

Being pro-Hitler wasn't that uncommon among the British upper class, especially since the alternative was perceived to be Communism, which was pledged to destroy the class system. I think this was somewhat exaggerated in the attempt to make the Duke and Duchess look bad. The other thing is that if the royal family could have somehow come to an accommodation with the Duke and Duchess instead of pushing them out into the cold, they wouldn't have been looking round for someone else to treat them as they wished to be treated.

The way the King and Queen treated the Duke and Duchess had some parallels with the way Queen Victoria treated the Prince of Wales: make sure they're unable to do anything useful and then blame them for being useless.
 
so i finally finished the book. it ended on such a sad note with the death of the Duchess...alone. i agree with the author that this was the love story of the century.
 
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