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A review by melindamoor
Traitor King by Andrew Lownie
4.0
I recently read [b:… And What Do You Do?: What The Royal Family Don't Want You To Know|51877169|… And What Do You Do? What The Royal Family Don't Want You To Know|Norman Baker|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1569036512l/51877169._SX50_SY75_.jpg|73461318] by [a:Norman Baker|1073067|Norman Baker|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] and it used some of the research by [a:Andrew Lownie|209154|Andrew Lownie|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1445878706p2/209154.jpg], which in turn lead me to this book.
It is extremely well-researched and uses a gamut of sources from archives: official documents by US and UK officials, the Marburg files (info the Nazis kept on the British Royals) newspaper articles, interviews with and/or diary entries by contemporaries, friends, servants. The final outcome is an interesting mix: a recital of historical facts, gossip and some speculation about the nature of the relationship between the Duke (abdicated King, Edward VIII) and Duchess (aka Wallis Simpson) of Windsor. The mix makes for a bit of an uneven, but still very interesting reading experience.
The way the author presented his facts made a clear and convincing case: the Windsors knew well what they were in for and were partial accomplices to try and throw over Britain's (back then) lonely and heroic war efforts. They actively promoted appeasement and tried to prevent the US joining in the war. They only shut up after Pearl Harbour, but still kept exceedingly shady connections to pro-Nazi and anti-Semite businessmen on both sides of the Atlantic, who were agents for the Nazis.
The book starts with the day Edward VIII announced his abdication on the radio. While it is quite effective, I would have appreciated the author's insight about the whole process of how it all came to that decision. One of the chapters at the very end of the book speculates about the hows and the whys of the power Wallis Simpson had over E VIII, including the sexual nature of their relationship (which personally I could have done without, even if it is part of the parcel), which seemed out of place. It would have made more sense for that chapter to be part of some introduction of how events led to the abdication.
I think some more prominence could have also been given to the historians both in the US and the UKs who would not let the governments of their countries suppress the publication of the invaluable Marburg files! They were heroes in their own way.
I am quoting the cover blurb as it is clearly indicating the content of the book in a well-structured way. We can read about
"- the story behind the German attempts to recruit the Duke as a British Pétain in the summer of 1940.
- the efforts, by Churchill in particular, to prevent post-war publication of the captured German documents which detailed the Duke's Nazi intrigues.
- the reasons why the Duke, as Governor of the Bahamas, tried to shut down the investigation into the 1943 murder of his close friend Harry Oakes."
- the full extent of the feud with the British Royal Family, based on his betrayals going back to his dishonesty about his true financial position at the time of the abdication.
- that far from a love story, Wallis felt trapped in a marriage she had never wanted with a pathetic and suffocating husband, one of the reasons she took several lovers, including the gay playboy Jimmy Donahue."
Lownie also spends considerable time and effort to show the Windsors as persons and the picture is as disgusting as it is faithful (though he also correctly mentions those very few instances when they did some good in the public interest!).
The Duke and Duchess of Windsor were pathologically pathetic parasites and social derelicts, living aimlessly in their larger than life pantomime show, keeping up the appearances of a happy marriage which in reality was empty and unfulfilling.
They (in the best of traditions that has been kept up faithfully by today's Windsors) spent their legally and mostly illegally gotten money like there was no tomorrow before/during/after the war, were the most unashamed cheapskates, avoided taxes like the plague, expected others to pick up their bills and treated their friends and servants abominably.
The Duke traded without any scruples on the black money market run by a criminal ring and they were also not above insurance fraud (making jewels disappear and claiming they were robbed.)
They were enthusiastic advocates of commercialising their status, but not that popular with the public and were held in contempt even by their so-called friends. Their egotism was quite mind-blowing even by today's standards.
In a way they were like vampires: sucking the life out of others and then throwing them away, all the time craving for and unable to obtain a real life for themselves. (YUCK!)
It is extremely well-researched and uses a gamut of sources from archives: official documents by US and UK officials, the Marburg files (info the Nazis kept on the British Royals) newspaper articles, interviews with and/or diary entries by contemporaries, friends, servants. The final outcome is an interesting mix: a recital of historical facts, gossip and some speculation about the nature of the relationship between the Duke (abdicated King, Edward VIII) and Duchess (aka Wallis Simpson) of Windsor. The mix makes for a bit of an uneven, but still very interesting reading experience.
The way the author presented his facts made a clear and convincing case: the Windsors knew well what they were in for and were partial accomplices to try and throw over Britain's (back then) lonely and heroic war efforts. They actively promoted appeasement and tried to prevent the US joining in the war. They only shut up after Pearl Harbour, but still kept exceedingly shady connections to pro-Nazi and anti-Semite businessmen on both sides of the Atlantic, who were agents for the Nazis.
The book starts with the day Edward VIII announced his abdication on the radio. While it is quite effective, I would have appreciated the author's insight about the whole process of how it all came to that decision. One of the chapters at the very end of the book speculates about the hows and the whys of the power Wallis Simpson had over E VIII, including the sexual nature of their relationship (which personally I could have done without, even if it is part of the parcel), which seemed out of place. It would have made more sense for that chapter to be part of some introduction of how events led to the abdication.
I think some more prominence could have also been given to the historians both in the US and the UKs who would not let the governments of their countries suppress the publication of the invaluable Marburg files! They were heroes in their own way.
I am quoting the cover blurb as it is clearly indicating the content of the book in a well-structured way. We can read about
"- the story behind the German attempts to recruit the Duke as a British Pétain in the summer of 1940.
- the efforts, by Churchill in particular, to prevent post-war publication of the captured German documents which detailed the Duke's Nazi intrigues.
- the reasons why the Duke, as Governor of the Bahamas, tried to shut down the investigation into the 1943 murder of his close friend Harry Oakes."
- the full extent of the feud with the British Royal Family, based on his betrayals going back to his dishonesty about his true financial position at the time of the abdication.
- that far from a love story, Wallis felt trapped in a marriage she had never wanted with a pathetic and suffocating husband, one of the reasons she took several lovers, including the gay playboy Jimmy Donahue."
Lownie also spends considerable time and effort to show the Windsors as persons and the picture is as disgusting as it is faithful (though he also correctly mentions those very few instances when they did some good in the public interest!).
The Duke and Duchess of Windsor were pathologically pathetic parasites and social derelicts, living aimlessly in their larger than life pantomime show, keeping up the appearances of a happy marriage which in reality was empty and unfulfilling.
They (in the best of traditions that has been kept up faithfully by today's Windsors) spent their legally and mostly illegally gotten money like there was no tomorrow before/during/after the war, were the most unashamed cheapskates, avoided taxes like the plague, expected others to pick up their bills and treated their friends and servants abominably.
The Duke traded without any scruples on the black money market run by a criminal ring and they were also not above insurance fraud (making jewels disappear and claiming they were robbed.)
They were enthusiastic advocates of commercialising their status, but not that popular with the public and were held in contempt even by their so-called friends. Their egotism was quite mind-blowing even by today's standards.
In a way they were like vampires: sucking the life out of others and then throwing them away, all the time craving for and unable to obtain a real life for themselves. (YUCK!)