THE DUCHESS OF WINDSOR: The Secret Life

by Charles Higham ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 4, 1988

Higham (Brando, 1987; Lucy, 1986; Orson Welles, 1985; etc.) has a field day researching the early, untold life of the Duchess of Windsor and unearthing stories both shocking and raunchy. Born out of wedlock in Baltimore in 1895, the future duchess, Bessie Wallis War-field, was a scandal from the start, given to tantrums and never abandoning her obsessively stubborn pursuit of self-satisfaction. Not a raving beauty, her youth and first marriage to Earl Winfield Spencer--an insanely jealous, insulting, bizarre, outrageous, alcoholic naval officer--found her not climbing but racing up the social ladder. While he was on sea-duty off Shanghai, she attended the ""purple houses"" and was instructed in erotic lore (then called ""perverse practices"") of protracting ejaculation by various massages. The duchess' ""China dossier"" in England also involves her in extensive drug peddling in China and other sources call her ""a Soviet spy."" She aborted a love-child of Count Ciano's (her lover was later Mussolini's son-in-law). The great affair with Edward, King of England, was one the twice-divorced Wallis never wanted to have consummated by marriage. She would have preferred to have been the power behind the throne, not shunted from the center by his abdication. Edward had erotic foibles that Wallis knew perfectly how to deal with, including his love of being wheeled about in a pram. Their ties with Hitler, whom they visited and who admired Wallis enormously, were so strong that throughout WW II they were suspected of being Nazi spies. The heart of the book is that they were under suspicion by both the English and American intelligence services because of their Italian and German sympathies and connections--which had earlier forced Edward's abdication (not just the religious injunction against his marrying a divorcee). Their own ties were quite queer, with Edward dependently mad for Wallis and Wallis only belatedly caring more deeply for the Duke. Edward was Governor of the Bahamas when the Sir Harry Oakes murder took place and, according to Higham, was aware of the coverup that brought ruin to the wrong man. Serious, deliciously fresh political dirt, documented by newly opened secret government files in the US and England. Higham's best.

Pub Date: July 4, 1988

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: McGraw-Hill

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1988

Categories: NONFICTION