Once a King
The Lost Memoir of Edward VIII
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- $23.99
Publisher Description
'ASTONISHING' THE DAILY MAIL
'STRIKING' THE SUNDAY TIMES
'RADICAL' TATLER
Described by The Telegraph as 'Edward's truth' Once a King is the never before seen and unfiltered story of King Edward VIII, the original royal renegade, who abdicated his throne and left the royal family to pursue his own destiny.
Fifteen years after having abdicated the throne to marry the woman he loved - Wallis Simpson - King Edward VIII, now the Duke of Windsor, published his memoirs. But whilst preparing the manuscript for his published and mostly ghostwritten book - which, unlike Prince Harry's autobiography Spare, largely avoided controversy - the Duke also produced a private manuscript for posterity. This was written in his own words and with an uninhibited frankness.
Once a King: The Lost Memoir of Edward VIII reproduces this uncrowned King's previously unseen writing, including much that he could or would not write for publication in 1951. Jane Marguerite Tippett weaves together Edward's writing alongside newly uncovered interviews with the Duke and Duchess, diary entries from ghostwriter Charles Murphy and other sources. Together this forms an extraordinary new portrait of one of the most famous characters in modern royal history and his recollections and innermost feelings, particularly around the abdication of 1936.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Aiming "to give the Windsors back their voice," journalist Tippett debuts with a sympathetic presentation of a newly found memoir by King Edward VIII, later the Duke of Windsor (1894–1972), who famously abdicated the throne in 1936 to marry American divorcée Wallis Simpson. Tippett begins with her late 2010s discovery of "an archival feast"—following a trail of breadcrumbs that began at Boston University, she eventually uncovered in the U.K.'s Royal Archives a "never-before-seen" handwritten draft of Edward's memoir (published in 1951 as A King's Story) containing many "personal reflections" that had been excised from the original publication, as well as transcripts of interviews with his ghostwriter, Life magazine reporter Charles Murphy, and other documents. Adding her own editorial comments throughout the excerpted text of these records, Tippett makes astute observations about Edward's personality and intimate life, especially when she notes how his extensive traveling during his tenure as the Prince of Wales "separated" him emotionally "from his family and traditional court life," and that his abdication and love for Simpson can partly be traced back to an "increasing obsession" with America. Tippett also makes a slightly more forced but still intriguing effort to show Edward was less open to the Nazis than is widely believed. The result is an insightful blend of memoir and royal family history.
