Edward viii biography book
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King Edward VIII
September 9,
For an "authorized" biography, Philip Ziegler's King Edward VIII paints a remarkably unflattering portrait. The King who was once, and in some circles still is, romanticized for abdicating his throne "for the woman I love" has undergone a drubbing in recent decades, as his personal foibles and fascist sympathies have inspired heavy scrutiny. Ziegler's book, perhaps the most thorough and "definitive" work on this ill-starred ruler, tries to be generous to Edward but finds little to be generous about. His early life is a rake's progress of romantic liaisons, drunken escapades and academic failures, interrupted by uneventful military service and occasional diplomatic tours. Ziegler unsparingly shows Edward's vapidity: his private letters, well into adulthood, read like the diary of a middle schooler who never mastered the English language, while his public utterances rarely aspired to the banal. He tries to balance this intellectual nullity with comment 
He was the twentieth century’s Prince Charming. Handsome, elegant, quick-witted, charismatic, and an intimate friend of the most powerful and brilliant people of his day, he had everything youth and beauty could hope for—including fabulous wealth and claim to the English throne. Then, a mere eleven months after becoming King, Edward VIII threw everything away to marry the woman he loved—Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee.
In this superbly written biography, Philip Ziegler, author of the highly praised biographies Diana Cooper and Mountbatten paints a graceful, balanced, and utterly mesmerizing portrait of the life and times of Edward VIII. Drawing on Edward’s extremely frank and explicit diaries and his two thousand love letters (long assumed to have been destroyed), Ziegler shows us the man he truly was. It is a story as compelling as the greatest English novels.
Praise for King Edward VIII
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By: Philip Ziegler
He was the twentieth century’s Prince Charming. Handsome, elegant, quick-witted, charismatic, and an intimate friend of the most powerful and brilliant people of his day, he had everything youth and beauty could hope for—including fabulous wealth and claim to the English throne. Then, a mere eleven months after becoming King, Edward VIII threw everything away to marry the woman he loved—Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee.
In this superbly written biography, Philip Ziegler, author of the highly praised biographies Diana Cooper and Mountbatten paints a graceful, balanced, and utterly mesmerizing portrait of the life and times of Edward VIII. Drawing on Edward’s extremely frank and explicit diaries and his two thousand love letters (long assumed to have been destroyed), Ziegler shows us the man he truly was. It is a story as compelling as the greatest English novels.
Praise for King Edward VIII
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The 8 Best Books About the Duke and Duchess of Windsor
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Atria Books The Real Wallis Simpson: A New History of the American Divorcée Who Became the Duchess of Windsor
Now 17% Off
This biography of Wallis Simpson bygd Anna Pasternak argues that Wallis never wanted Edward to abdicate, and that she was the real victim of the abdication. "Instead of simply belittling Wallis and defaming her reputation," Pasternak writes, "we might try to understand this modern, intelligent, remarkable woman and the impossible situation she was placed in."
Read an excerpt of The Real Wallis Simpson here
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Traitor King: The Scandalous Exile of the Duke & Duchess of Windsor
Author Andrew Lownie begins his story on the day of King Edward VIII's abdication. Lownie focuses in on the Windsors' time in exile, including their tour of Nazi Germany—he calls them "actively engagerad with the German intrigues"—then covers Edward's time as governor of the Ba