Behind Closed Doors

The tragic, untold story of the Duchess of Windsor

A page turner... Hugo Vickers' compelling account makes one feel that Wallis did the Queen a favour

With a lifetime's interest in the subject, Vickers knows everything there is to know about the Windsors . . . The first half of Behind Closed Doors, as well as being an accumulation of evidence against Blum, is the story of a personal journey into the world of the Windsors in which Vickers quotes from nearly 40 years of his own diary entries. It is also a hugely entertaining account of the battle between biographers for ownership of their subject . . . The book's second half is a biography of Wallis Simpson, nee Warfield. Vickers delves into her family tree with his accustomed detail and gives a realistic account of the end of her marriage to Ernest Simpson.

A definitively brilliant history of the whole story

Hugo Vickers was born in 1951 and educated at Eton and Strasbourg University. His books include Alice, Princess Andrew of Greece; Gladys, Duchess of Marlborough; Cecil Beaton; Vivien Leigh; Loving Garbo; Royal Orders; The Private World of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor; and The Kiss, which won the 1996 Stern Silver Pen for non-fiction. He is an acknowledged expert on the Royal Family, appears regularly on television and has lectured all over the world. Hugo Vickers is married and has two sons and a daughter.

Hugo Vickers has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the Royal Family, and has had a fascination with the story of the Duchess of Windsor since he was a young man. There have been a number of books about this doomed couple, but this book brings a new perspective on the story by focussing on the later years of exile. 
 
While Vickers has his own theories about the Abdication itself, and he makes it very clear that Mrs Simpson did not lure the King from the throne, the drama of this narrative comes from the criminal exploitation of an old sick woman after the death of her husband. She was ruthlessly exploited by a French lawyer called Suzanne Blum. Some members of the Royal Family, like Mountbatten and the Queen Mother, don't emerge with much credit either. 
 
Hugo Vickers relates a tragic story which has lost none of its resonance over the years since the Duchess died in 1986.

Elizabeth, the Queen Mother

An authoritative and affectionate biography of the Queen Mother by a highly respected Royal biographer.

A bulging plum pudding of insider snippets in the Cecil Beaton tradition, with camp and catty asides laced with worldly wisdom... Vickers has done serious research in some important areas

This is the first full-length biography - and who better to write it than Hugo Vickers... He is at home in the courtier's world and the circles which the Queen Mother inhabited... A very considerable achievement

A major new biography... Filled with telling anecdotes, it paints an affectionate yet revealing portrait

There is a small handful of British royal biographies which have acquired classic status... To this number must certainly be added Hugo Vickers's life of Elizabeth the Queen Mother. It is a truly magnificent book... Written with true authority. Hugo Vickers knows his subject through and through... A monumental record of why we all found the Queen Mother such a loveable and inspiring person, and why her pluck and her humour appealed to so wide a public

Witty and respectful … An overall portrait which may well be as close as anyone will ever get to the truth

Masterly ... Hugo Vickers's life long immersion in the history and dramatis personae of the Royal Family has certainly paid off ... The portrait of the Queen Mother that he gives us here is richly textured and judicious and I doubt will ever be bettered

Hugo Vickers' books include Alice, Princess Andrew of Greece; Gladys, Duchess of Marlborough; Cecil Beaton; Vivien Leigh; Loving Garbo; Royal Orders; The Private World of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor; and The Kiss, which won the 1996 Stern Silver Pen for Non-fiction.

Harold Nicolson called her 'the greatest Queen since Cleopatra', while Cecil Beaton called her 'a marshmallow made on a welding machine'. Stephen Tennant said: 'She looked everything that she was not: gentle, gullible, tenderness mingled with dispassionate serenity, cool, well-bred, remote. Behind this veil she schemed and vacillated, hard as nails.' Who was she? 
 
The Queen Mother's story has not yet been properly told. This was partly due to her long life, and the difficulty that always exists when a biography of a living person is attempted, partly because she was a queen - and the real person gets hidden behind the perceived image - and partly because she is hard to pin down. 
 
From her privileged aristocratic childhood, to the Abdication and the problems with Diana - this book questions how she faced her challenges and crises, assesses her role, how powerful she was, and how she coped. This is a candid, personal portrait of one of Britain's most loved national treasures. 
 
Hugo Vickers, an acknowledged expert on the House of Windsor, has spent seventeen years researching this book, and observed the Queen Mother in public and private over a period of forty years.

The Story of Greta Garbo,Cecil Beaton and Mercedes de Acosta

Loving Garbo

Beautifully illustrated, this brilliant and compelling new biography tells the extraordinary story of Greta Grabo and two of her greatest loves - Cecil Beaton and Mercedes de Acosta.

Hugely ambitious... Vickers's triumph has been to weave the lives of three bisexual, egotistical monsters into an utterly enthralling narrative.

Greta Garbo's enduring legend derives from her incandescent performances as a woman in love in such classics as Camille, Queen Christina and Grand Hotel. For half a century her apparently reclusive existence enhanced her reputation as a remote and enigmatic screen goddess. 
 
Now, in this beautifully illustrated book, Hugo Vickers tells the remarkable story of Greta Garbo and of the two love affairs that dominated her life: with Cecil Beaton and the notorious Mercedes de Acosta. It is a highly revealing portait of an exotic world - at its centre, an enthrallign and demanding star who gave little in return.

Hugo Vickers

richly textured and judicious, and I doubt it will ever be bettered

Gripping gloriously gossipy beautifully detailed, fair but never fawning - arguably the best royal biography of recent years (there has, of course, been competition...)

Harold Nicolson called her 'the greatest Queen since Cleopatra', while Cecil Beaton called her 'a marshmallow made on a welding machine'. Stephen Tennant said: 'She looked everything that she was not: gentle, gullible, tenderness mingled with dispassionate serenity, cool, well-bred, remote. Behind this veil she schemed and vacillated, hard as nails.' Who was she? 
The Queen Mother's story has not yet been properly told. This was partly due to her long life, and the difficulty that always exists when a biography of a living person is attempted, partly because she was a queen - and the real person gets hidden behind the perceived image - and partly because she is hard to pin down. 
From her privileged aristocratic childhood, to the abdication and the problems with Diana - this book questions how she faced her challenges and crises, assess her role, how powerful she was, and how she coped. This is a candid, personal portrait of one of Britain's most loved national treasures. 
Hugo Vickers, an acknowledged expert on the House of Windsor, has spent seventeen years researching this book, and observed the Queen Mother in public and private over a period of forty years.

Hugo Vickers

Praise for Elizabeth, The Queen Mother

As close as anyone will get to the truth

A rare, authoritative and welcome book

richly textured and judicious, and I doubt it will ever be bettered

As close as anyone will get to the truth

A rare, authoritative and welcome book

richly textured and judicious, and I doubt it will ever be bettered

As close as anyone will get to the truth

A rare, authoritative and welcome book

richly textured and judicious, and I doubt it will ever be bettered

Books by Hugo Vickers

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