That Woman: The Life of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor
The story has been told many times but never seems to get old. Wallis Simpson, a twice-divorced American, took up with King Edward VIII of England, and, in 1936, he abdicated to marry her, which he couldn’t have done had he remained on the throne. Forever afterward, they drifted aimlessly as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. The central question has been, as Sebba poses it, “How could a middle-aged, not especially beautiful, rather masculine-looking woman have exerted such a powerful effect on a king that he gave up his throne in order to possess her?” Wallis met and mesmerized the future king when he was still Prince of Wales, and “it was her assurance, poise and buoyancy that the Prince admired, as he could not see the underlying insecurity.” The author makes it clear that Wallis never intended to become the queen, but once she embarked on her affair, she found it impossible to back out, and when the prince suddenly became king, marriage was not what she had planned. Sexual proclivities and domineering personality traits all factor into Sebba’s picture of the Windsor relationship. For popular biography collections. --Brad Hooper