Behind Closed Doors

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.

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

Literary Review

About Hugo Vickers

Hugo Vickers is a writer, lecturer and broadcaster, and an acknowledged expert on the Royal Family, appearing regularly on television. He has written biographies of the Queen Mother, Alice, Princess Andrew of Greece; Gladys, Duchess of Marlborough (The Sphinx), Cecil Beaton, Vivien Leigh and others. He explored the Duchess of Windsor’s house when writing The Private World of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor (1995). He collaborated with HRH The Duke of Kent on A Royal Life. His book The Kiss won the 1996 Stern Silver Pen for non-fiction. Hugo Vickers lives between London and Wiltshire and has two sons and a daughter.
Details
  • Imprint: Cornerstone Digital
  • ISBN: 9781409036920
  • Length: 512 pages
  • Price: £5.99
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