Traitor King: The Scandalous Exile of the Duke & Duchess of Windsor

Although numerous books have been written about the Duke and Duchess of Windsor (Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson), Lownie’s (The Mountbattens) well-researched and comprehensive book proves there’s more to learn about the couple. He dispels many myths and misunderstandings about the couple’s motivations, while scrupulously avoiding sensationalism. Readers will find not salacious gossip but careful analysis and an accurate portrait of an unpleasant, grasping, manipulative couple trying to find purpose in their lives after Edward abdicated the British throne in 1936. With war looming, the couple made no secret of their affinity for Nazi politics, or of Simpson’s friendship with the Nazi politician Joachim von Ribbentrop. Some have argued that Edward’s approach to Nazi Germany was simply naive, but Lownie’s research establishes otherwise; he concludes that the duke would have betrayed his country as casually as he betrayed his friends. Edward later publicly renounced the worst Nazi offenses, but his friendships, comments, and antisemitism reveal another truth.