The Duchess of Windsor: The Secret Life
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“Deeply researched, valuable.”
–The New York Times Book Review
“A shocker . . . stunning . . . absolutely hypnotic. . . . A world of gorgeous houses, ceaseless travel, trendsetting fashion, and powerful facts. . . . Fascinating revelations.”
–Cosmopolitan
Wallis, the Duchess of Windsor, was one of the most legendary women in history, the American divorcée 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-status 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 nearly brought them–and the British royal family tree–to ruin. This updated new edition of The Duchess of Windsor is essential reading.
“Higham’s best. . . . Serious, deliciously fresh . . . documented by newly opened secret government files in the U.S. and England.”
–Kirkus Reviews
“Smooth and entertaining.”
–The Unadorned Dealer (Cleveland)
“An brilliant biography . . . alert to every hint.”
–The London Sunday Telegraph
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I like history, royalty and reading. I have establish many excellent authors here and promote the development of new authors. I find it far too simple to give a terrible review, so I don’t, I don’t need to, but excellent books and authors, even the developing ones, need the positive input we all seek. I loved this book very much, it was everything I was looking for and at a fee no one could complain about. As a member of a few book clubs, I inform our New York book club and our Aspen club about books they should not miss and authors they will delight in such as this one. Additional books recommended are: Obsession Into Darkess (Gay Thriller), The Boy In The Window (Gay Romance), Reflections In The Looking Glass – A Murder Mystery That Will Surprise you (Gay Murder Mystery)and Ride ‘Em Cowboy (Gay Cowboy) also recommended is From Boys to Men (Gay Classic) or the revision, From Boys To Men – Revision By Hector Vance (Gay Romance).
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
“The Duchess of Windsor: The Secret Life” purports to shed scandalous light on the life and times of Wallis Warfield Spencer Simpson Windsor. Higham paints the Duchess as a sometime spy, a Nazi-sympathizing party girl, and the dominating figure in the life of her weak, dim spouse. At the same time, he touts her vaunted personal charm, fashionable elegance, and supposed genuine affection for the man who surrendered his throne to marry her.
Sorry to say, the leader’s slapdash writing (replete with repetitive facts and anecdotes and endlessly laced with self-congratulatory details of his mostly unrevealing research) mean that “The Secret Life” doesn’t even read well as mindless escapism. Higham’s fantastic revelations — that the Duchess faked some details of her life as a military wife in China, and that the Windsors’ contacts with various Fascist sympathizers were more substantial than they themselves were willing to reveal — are hardly surprising in the context of a life devoted nearly entirely to self-gratification and hedonistic consumption.
“The Secret Life” fails to convince the reader of anything except the nearly overwhelming mediocrity of its theme, and by extension her hapless consort. Nothing fades quicker than news of yesterday’s parties; much the same is right of the once glittering and romantic legend of the Duchess of Windsor.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
This book came out about 12 years ago and it was open in a gorgeous hardcover jacket.I read it as a novel and it fascinated me.The writing and the pictures are fantastic.The tale on the additional hand is about this unpleasant and hideous woman, who stole the heart of a king.Mr. Higham wrote it perfectly,sorry to say she was not a very likeable person.Whether some of the tales are right or not, we shall never know. Like the duke running around in diapers….Read it if you are interested in British History.Sadly Wallis is in it.The Duke on the additional hand gave an impression of being somebody lacking character, extremely weak,and a puppet in Simpson’s hands.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
I ordered it lacking realizing this is the exact same biography on the Duchess of Windsor I read about ten years ago but the book seems to have been so updated with new facts it really is worth buying the newer version. She really was a tenacious and riveting woman…no marvel the King left his throne for her. I would have done the same. I find the authors writing to be very unbiased…he does not seem to approve of the politics or the activities of the Duke and Duchess very much, but he gives a very balanced presentation of the facts. Like most people born after world war 2, anyone who supported the Nazi’s was automatically evil in my mind but this book caused me to reconsider such a snap judgement. The opinion open for why so muchof the European elite and American elite supported Hitler are very sound. Fascism was just another right wing philosophy…most of the crowned heads and aristocrats who believed in Hitler were not interested in committing genocide. Hitler went off on the rails on his own in that aspect.
In addition to being insightful and gossipy, this book made me revise some of my own opinions.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
Sometimes a person just deserves to have a [...] gossipy book written about them… and Wallis Simpson is one of persons people! Charles Higham spent his time dredging up all the best bits about this horrid woman and poured them into one fantastic read. We hear about everything here: the rumors of her serial adultery and fooling around (even on the man who gave up a kingdom for her — “stupid is as stupid does”), the possible lesbianic interludes, the possibility that she was a man (if my memory serves me correctly)… Its all here. Nothing is more hilarious than the description of how much Wally despised thier posting to the Bahamas (where Govt House was filled with sand) – the on time that Wally had the oppportunity to semi-officially play queen. How the Queen Mother must have checkled thinking about it. This is a hatchet job of the highest order, not only on her but on that dining room table of a third spouse she married. One thing we can all be thankful to Wallis Simpson is that she got David out of England – where he might have really done some hurt.
Reader’s Rating: 4 / 5