The Duke and Duchess of Windsor spent their entire life together in exile after the Duke had abdicated as King Edward VIII in order to marry the twice-divorced Wallis.
They were and still are strongly disliked, not in the least because of their apparent support of the Nazi regime. I won’t go into too much detail about my opinion of this, as I have already done so elsewhere.
Traitor King: The Scandalous Exile of the Duke & Duchess of Windsor dives deep into the evidence, although I am not sure if anything was actually “explosive” or “new.” A large part of the book focuses on the years around the abdication and the war years, which I understand as this is where the “scandalous” part of their exile takes place. The rest of their lives (and exile) isn’t covered quite as in-depth as the rest.
The book is quite interesting, but the disdain for the couple seems to drip from the pages. It’s fine to dislike them; even I don’t think very highly of them. Overall, I don’t think this book quite lives up to the claim on the cover.
Traitor King: The Scandalous Exile of the Duke & Duchess of Windsor by Andrew Lownie is available now in the US and the UK.
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