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The Real Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor

De: Anna Pasternak

Narrado por: Laura Kirman

‘The best book about the Windsors for decades’ Petronella Wyatt

The intimate biography of one of the most misunderstood women in British royal history.

His charisma and glamour ensured him the status of a rock star prince. Yet Edward gave up the British throne, the British Empire and his position as Emperor of India, to marry his true love, American divorcee Wallis Simpson.

So much gossip and innuendo has been levelled at Wallis Simpson that it has become nearly impossible to discern the real woman. Many have wondered why, when Edward could have had anyone he desired, he was smitten with this unusual American woman. As her friend Herman Rogers said to her in 1936 when news of her affair with Edward broke: ‘Much of what is being said concerns a woman who does not exist and never did exist.’

History is mostly perceived from the perspective of his-story. But what about her story? Anna Pasternak’s new book is the first ever to give Wallis a chance and a voice to show that she was a warm, loyal, intelligent woman adored by her friends, who was written off by cunning, influential Establishment men seeking to diminish her and destroy her reputation. As the author argues, far from being the villain of the abdication, she was the victim.

Anna Pasternak seeks to understand an unusual, deeply misunderstood woman, and the untenable situation she became embroiled in. Using testimony from their inner circle of friends, she presents a very different Wallis Simpson. With empathy, intimacy and thorough research, this book will make readers view her story as it has never been told before.

©2019 Anna Pasternak (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers

Enjoyable.

I enjoyed listening to this book that, for once, doesn’t vilify Wallis. Her story is remarkable, some of is happy and some of it anything but. The book doesn’t seek out to scandalize or reveal new gossipy details, but rather examines that which has always been there for us to know from a perspective of “hang on, maybe it wasn’t all her fault”.

Though I already admired Wallis before, this book made me do so more. Wallis’ perseverance and determination to make the best of a situation, even when the world was against her, is exemplary.