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A review by komet2020
Traitor King: The Scandalous Exile of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor by Andrew Lownie
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
TRAITOR KING: The Scandalous Exile of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor is one of the best, most thoroughly researched, and highly readable books about the Duke and Duchess of Windsor (Edward and Wallis Simpson) it has been my pleasure to read.
The book takes the reader from the day of Edward VIII's abdication of the throne (December 11, 1936) to the deaths of both Edward (May 1972) and Wallis Simpson (April 1986). It is also richly laden with photos (both B&W and color) of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, as well as some of their friends, attendants, and associates. What became clear to me as I read this book is how utterly unfit Edward was to be King (while he loved the trappings of the role, he hated the work and responsibilities that came with being King and avoided them whenever he could), coupled with his pro-Nazi sentiments, which Wallis Simpson also shared. By his own admission, Edward eschewed reading books and had zero interest in the arts, preferring to engage in gossip (he liked to dominate conversations with his take on the world), gardening, and golf. Wallis Simpson was a spendthrift, a social snob, and like her husband, a freeloader whenever she could get away with it.
What particularly struck me was the following remarks from Edward Metcalf, who had been one of Edward's closest friends and aides from the 1920s (when Edward was the young and dashing Prince of Wales, celebrated and emulated for his smart fashion sense -- he was a very snazzy dresser) concerning his abrupt abandonment by the Duke and Duchess of Windsor in May 1940, when both of them fled their French estate in the wake of the German advances during the Battle of France. Following the abdication, Metcalf had worked for the Windsors for months without pay, sacrificing his own needs in the process:
"He [the Duke of Windsor] never made one single mention of what was to happen to me, or his paid Comptroller Phillips. He has taken all cars and left not even a bicycle!! ... He had denuded the Suchet house of all articles of value and all his clothes, etc. After twenty years I am through --- utterly I despise him, I've fought and backed him up (knowing what a swine he was for 20 years), but now it is finished ... The man is not worth doing anything for. He deserted his job in 1936. Well, he deserted his country now, at a time when every office boy and cripple is trying to do what he can. It is the end."
TRAITOR KING is an absolute keeper. This is a book that I will return to in times to come. Highly recommended.
The book takes the reader from the day of Edward VIII's abdication of the throne (December 11, 1936) to the deaths of both Edward (May 1972) and Wallis Simpson (April 1986). It is also richly laden with photos (both B&W and color) of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, as well as some of their friends, attendants, and associates. What became clear to me as I read this book is how utterly unfit Edward was to be King (while he loved the trappings of the role, he hated the work and responsibilities that came with being King and avoided them whenever he could), coupled with his pro-Nazi sentiments, which Wallis Simpson also shared. By his own admission, Edward eschewed reading books and had zero interest in the arts, preferring to engage in gossip (he liked to dominate conversations with his take on the world), gardening, and golf. Wallis Simpson was a spendthrift, a social snob, and like her husband, a freeloader whenever she could get away with it.
What particularly struck me was the following remarks from Edward Metcalf, who had been one of Edward's closest friends and aides from the 1920s (when Edward was the young and dashing Prince of Wales, celebrated and emulated for his smart fashion sense -- he was a very snazzy dresser) concerning his abrupt abandonment by the Duke and Duchess of Windsor in May 1940, when both of them fled their French estate in the wake of the German advances during the Battle of France. Following the abdication, Metcalf had worked for the Windsors for months without pay, sacrificing his own needs in the process:
"He [the Duke of Windsor] never made one single mention of what was to happen to me, or his paid Comptroller Phillips. He has taken all cars and left not even a bicycle!! ... He had denuded the Suchet house of all articles of value and all his clothes, etc. After twenty years I am through --- utterly I despise him, I've fought and backed him up (knowing what a swine he was for 20 years), but now it is finished ... The man is not worth doing anything for. He deserted his job in 1936. Well, he deserted his country now, at a time when every office boy and cripple is trying to do what he can. It is the end."
TRAITOR KING is an absolute keeper. This is a book that I will return to in times to come. Highly recommended.