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THAT WOMAN Paperback – 19 January 2012
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- Print length368 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherW&N
- Publication date19 January 2012
- Dimensions12.9 x 2.5 x 19.7 cm
- ISBN-100753827395
- ISBN-13978-0753827390
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Review
Madonna's new film fictionalises the affair between Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson, while this life tells the true story ― DAILY TELEGRAPH
Commendably restrained ... Sebba's real coup is the discovery of letters between Wallis and Ernest, dated long after she had become involved with Edward ― INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
A well-rounded and often moving portrait ― CAMBRIDGESHIRE JOURNAL
The publication of this intriguing reassessment of her [Simpson's] controversial life could not be more timely ... an illuminating and absorbing read -- Katherine Whitbourn ― DAILY MAIL
Book Description
About the Author
Anne Sebba is one of Britain's most distinguished biographers. Formerly a Reuters correspondent based in London and Rome, she has written ten works of non-fiction, mostly about iconic women, and presented BBC radio documentaries. She is the author of the international bestsellers That Woman, an acclaimed biography of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor, and Les Parisiennes: How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved and Died Under Nazi Occupation. She is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Historical Research and lives in Richmond, Surrey.
www.annesebba.com
http://www.facebook.com/anne.sebba
https://twitter.com/annesebba
Product details
- Publisher : W&N (19 January 2012)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 368 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0753827395
- ISBN-13 : 978-0753827390
- Item Weight : 281 g
- Dimensions : 12.9 x 2.5 x 19.7 cm
- Country of Origin : United Kingdom
- Best Sellers Rank: #452,880 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3,898 in European History (Books)
- #24,197 in Biographies & Autobiographies (Books)
- #43,961 in Reference (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors
Thank you for visiting my author page. It's a great opportunity to be in touch with my readers, to hear your response to my books and to say thank you for your support and interest. I really appreciate feedback so do please get in touch via twitter @annesebba or via my website www.annesebba.com.
I was born in London and went to London University where I read History, specialising in 20th century French History. I then lived in Rome where I worked as a foreign correspondent for Reuters followed by a couple of years in New York, where I started my freelance career.
I have written nine non- fiction books for adults since then mostly biographies of iconic women such as Mother Teresa, Laura Ashley and Jennie Churchill, Winston’s American Wife. In 2011, I published That Woman a life of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor based on a hidden archive of letters that I discovered in an attic and in 2016 Les Parisiennes: How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved and Died in the 1940’s (Weidenfeld & Nicolson UK )or Les Parisiennes How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved and Died under the Nazi Occupation according to the US version. (St Martin’s Press US) It was described as ‘fascinating and beautifully written’ by the Spectator. http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/07/keeping-up-appearances-in-1940s-paris/
I am thrilled finally to be writing about France in the 1940s after all those years when I studied it at University. I hope you find it a fascinating story too.
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This is not only a well-written book about a famous (or infamous) woman, it is also a wander through the politics and social attitudes of the first part of the 20th century. It's easy to forget how pious everyone could be for the wrong reasons!
The book does not always present Simpson in the best light, but I like her more for it, though I knew little about her before this book; I always understood her to be some scheming woman who trapped Edward (VIII) with her womanly charms. This is partly true, but she was much more complex. And Edward got what he always wanted: a get-out clause!
Although she is clearly selfish at times, I see her as less selfish and more self-preserving. She had clear insecurities (especially from her childhood - they never leave you) and this seems to have fueled most of her actions and motives.
The real villain of the piece is her second husband, Ernest Simpson. If he had such clear feelings for his wife why didn't fight for her? It was clear from the outset that Edward's (then the Prince of Wales) intentions towards his wife were not only "romantic", they were sexual, too. Ernest should have stood his ground. He should have simply warned off the Prince (with CHOICE words if necessary); it didn't matter if Edward was next-in-line to the throne, Wallace was HIS wife!
Ernest Simpson was bought off with temporary social status and some "free" gifts like membership of a Freemason club. He was spineless! It's that simple. If Ernest had stood up to Edward then the whole thing might have been avoided, Edward may have remained king, and Axis may have won the Second World War!
I think they call this the chaos theory. Also reminds me of the Euythmics song... "Some of them want to use you..."
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With the exception of letters from Wallis to her ex-husband Ernest Simpson, nothing is new to learn in this book. There is a photo of Ernest and his wife Mary and mention they had a son. Poor Ernest. It is sad he is but a blip on the radar in every book and film about the loves and lives of Mrs. Simpson and her King. There is some new information about Simpson, detailing his family tree which was of Jewish heritage. When arriving in the US the name was changed from Solomon to Simpson. The author speculates that Wallis never knew her husband was Jewish. I cannot imagine she did not know at some point but probably asked him to keep that information secret forever. Some of Wallis' friends bordered on the anti-semitic. Including the Duke!
It is also revealed that upon Simpson's death his son with Mary was made aware of his true ethnic background and changed the name back to Solomon. He also moved to Israel and joined the Israeli Army. What a tangled web we weave when we practice to deceive! So many lies connected with this story over the decades. We will never know the truth!
What makes their (Duke & Duchess)tawdry story so fascinating to the world was the ERA in which it was lived. Flitting from husband to husband, spending time in China, moving to England and moving in the ritzy-royal circles Wallis did was a feat in itself for the times. A nice Southern lady just didn't do it!
Yes, it is a re-hash of the same old stories, the same list of suspects. I foolishly believe this book will be the last quality book written about the Duke & Duchess of Windsor. Short of opening the British Intelligence files on the both of them and spilling ALL the secrets (which will never, ever happen!) what more can be said?
Her early childhood in Baltimore reminds me of the line in John Berendt's book, Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil, when Jim Williams (Kevin Spacey in the film) talks about the rich, aristocratic Savannahians who lose their wealth and are left with only their good manners. This is the essence of Wallis Warfield's life.
Being a Southerner myself, I know all too well what it is like to have the name but not the money to dress quite as well as your wealthy school mates or school vacation trips to Europe, or have the late-model car, mansion, parties and so on that is the fuel that makes your life run so smoothly. I had friends who suffered because their fathers lost it all in the stock market or through gambling it all away. Wealth in New York City is one thing, but being wealthy with a baronial family name in the South is quite something else. It is no wonder she never got over her fear of dying poor.
I would recommend this book only because I believe this will be the last of the Wallis-David love story books. The photo on the cover is lovely. It is one I have never seen of her. It is well written, well researched and interesting. However, she devotes one paragraph to the 'affair' Wallis had with the Woolworth heir, Jimmy Donohue. Someone wrote an entire book on the subject so it should rate more than a lone paragraph!
With Madonna's film, W.E. just out, and this book, I think the Wallis Madness has finally ended. In the future, people who are interested in the subject will have a plethora of books already written on the subject. There is even a new book out written by a Los Angeles bon vivant who says he arranged threesomes for the Windsors! He says she was a lesbian and the Duke gay. I have heard that for decades. Even met a man in the Virgin Islands (from NYC) who spent an entire evening at dinner telling me about his 'time with the Duke.' Who cares?
Their marriage changed the fate of England forever. Without his abdication there would be no Queen Elizabeth celebrating 60 years on the throne this year. Who knows what would have happened had he never met Bessie Wallis Warfield.
In the end they died pitiful deaths. No real friends, no children, and a flawed legacy. They never founded an organization that helped poor people in any of the Third World countries. Did they ever visit a refugee camp or hold a fundraiser for anything that really meant something in their hearts? The Duchess did not leave her jewels to be auctioned off to benefit AIDS research. Her lawyer Maitre Blum did that. And yet, years after their deaths we continue to write books about them, films about them. And people like me foolishly continue to read these books and see these films.
I still wish someone would write a play about them in Shakespeare's style. I'll keep my fingers crossed!
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There is a quote near the end of the book which states,"in marrying the Duke, the Duchess swallowed a form of poison which slowly corroded both their lives". When I read that sentence it to me described the marriage of David and Wallis. As I read the book I got a full understanding how these two people had to stick together because neither of them had anyone to help them out. All they had was each other and of course their beloved dogs who they described as "their babies".
This is one very interesting and eye opening book full of information not only of Wallis after she married David but her early years in Baltimore. When you read about her early life with her mother, it helps you understand why she craved the life that David had to offer but I do believe she thought she could have her life with Ernest and with the King. She wanted the riches which David offered her but she wanted and craved the stability which Ernest offered her.
Regarding David he acted like a spoiled child throughout, even when Britain was going through the Second World War he was still giving out his demands and having his tantrums. He not only got the love which a wife provides with Wallis but he got a 'Mother' kind of love which he had craved so long from his own Mother(Queen Mary) who is described as having ice through her veins instead of warm blood. Therefore I could see what attracted him to Wallis. I was so thankful especially after reading "That Woman", that David's brother George(Bertie) became King. It was clear David might have been from the moment he was born destined to be King, he clearly had not got the maturity to be King of Great Britain and to lead Great Britain the way it needed to be, and that was before his friendship with Hitler and his comrades came into the equation.
When you read this book you will learn of information which will help you understand why Wallis was the way she was and you will receive a better understanding of her especially regarding her looks and build. I was sympathetic towards her to certain degree, as she clearly got into a situation which she could not control and was left with no other option other than to divorce Ernest and marry David but instead of getting a life of being the Royal Queen surrounded by servants doing everything for her she got a very lonely life looking after a man who clearly was a weak and feeble man especially when it came to strength of body and spirit. It was clear he might have had the body of a man but the character of a spoiled adolescent.
One thing which I loved about this book it has beautiful photographs included throughout the book, of Wallis and David throughout their ages and life together. It also has photographs of her jewellery which David had got made for her and he also helped design some of the pieces, the jewellery was very flamboyant but suited Wallis as the outgoing person she was. The photographs to me really were an added bonus, as most of them I had never seen before and also it showed us the reader what Wallis looked out from she was a young woman until after David's death in 5 June 1972. Though as she lived a life of recluse until her death in 1986 there was very little photographs taken between David's death and her own.
I highly recommend That Woman, The Life of Wallis Simpson Duchess of Windsor by Anne Sebba as an enthralling read, and the amount of background information and evidence which the author uses makes this book an extra special book.
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This omission is surprising because the author describes circumstances in which Wallis MUST have learned the importance of a man in her life. Throughout her girlhood Wallis and her widowed mother depended on hand-outs from her rich, but cantankerous uncle. It was a tense and humiliating set-up, a life-defining experience for Wallis. Nevertheless, the author does not venture to explore the important lessons linked to men, security, money and status which (evidence strongly suggests) Wallis learned from it.
Soon after the encounter between Wallis Simpson and Edward, Prince of Wales this story ceases to be a biography of one person. It becomes the drama of an evolving relationship, because the two were soon bound together, like the survivors of a shipwreck.
It is due to the Prince who became her third husband (and for no other reason) that Wallis Simpson is famous today, and in order to make sense of her niche in history a biography of Mrs.Simpson must include a consideration of the Prince she married.
But here Ms.Sebba's book has another weakness, because the author's assessment of Edward, Prince of Wales is wanting. When this incredible story is told it is vital the reader is put in touch with the reputation which surrounded him.
In his own time the Prince's extraordinary charisma, celebrated worldwide in newsreels and press photos, was a phenomenon never known before. He was a star, who possessed a natural genius for the public aspects of his role. In terms of historical perspective, the way this Prince touched people's lives is an essential aspect of the drama triggered by Wallis. But the author fails to bring this factor to life.
Had the author given us a sharper idea of what Edward, Prince of Wales meant to people, we would have a better understanding of the resentment (and fear) felt by those in-the-know, when the outsider Wallis Simpson arrived at centre stage. And a better understanding of the angry reaction of ordinary people across the Empire to the unknown "Mrs.Simpson", when they learned that because of her, this idolised King was going to quit his Throne.
The most significant aspect of Ms.Sebba's book is a new source which puts a fresh light on Mrs.Simpson's feelings about the King. The author discovered letters written by Mrs.Simpson to her just-divorced husband Ernest in 1936-7. As well as making clear that their divorce had been collusive (and illegal) these important letters indicate that despite her divorce, and her approaching marriage to a man who had been King of England, Wallis was more genuinely attached to her former husband, the dull Ernest Simpson.
The letters affirm that she was not in love with 'Peter Pan', the King whose crushing personal needs had engulfed her existence and taken control of her life. It is equally clear in the letters that Mrs.Simpson was horrified by her sudden notoriety and the lurid publicity which (she felt) destroyed her good name. She received sacks of hate-mail, much of which she read.
Her unasked-for notoriety was an indelible wound to Wallis' pride -a fact usually overlooked by biographers. In light of her humiliation and distress it is hardly credible that "Mrs.Simpson had played the game of life and won", an opinion quoted in the blurb on this book. To make sense of this relationship a franker analysis is needed than the one offered here... Let's talk frankly...from her point of view...
The former King was in the grip of an emotional obsession. He had brushed aside Mrs.Simpson's doubts, he had destroyed her marriage to Ernest, curtailed her freedom of action, and cornered her into marrying him. The Royal Family then scorned and publicly rejected her. Did all this mean Wallis had "won" ?
Wallis was not 'an empowered woman', as this book would like to suggest. On the contrary, she had been disempowered by the King. This began as a relationship which the tough, independent and self-confident Mrs.Simpson thought she could "manage" without destroying her marriage to Ernest. But it had disastrously escaped her control -and she ended up losing what was really important to her: her husband and her good name.
The Abdication of King Edward VIII was the last thing Mrs.Simpson wanted. With a stroke it ended the influential social position she had enjoyed as friend of the King. Judged unfit to be the King's wife, Wallis Simpson immediately lost her flattering social position in London, and was now publicly despised.
The Abdication branded her with blame, widespread contempt, and prurient speculation which continues to this day. The injury to her pride was severe, and lasting. Worst of all, the King's Abdication imprisoned her forever in a new marriage -with a man she did not love.
Naturally, none of this negative reality could she ever openly express. Her memoirs paint a different picture, of a romantic myth.
In married exile, the private tensions between this couple must have been enormous. All he wanted was constant love. All she wanted was a royal title to salvage her reputation. Both were disappointed.
Mrs.Simpson had become a duchess, but the world continued to see her as "that woman", and she knew it. She sought compensation in clothes, jewels, and a relentless social life, detesting England for having rejected her. The increasingly sad-looking Duke of Windsor trailed after her, even when she went to buy a hat.
The power-position in their relationship had reversed. As if in apology, the Duke of Windsor submitted his will to the discontented Duchess, and she proceeded to dominate her gilded prison. The Duke's adoration was undimmed, and he suffered greatly when in 1950 she embarked on an embarrassing flirtation with the extremely rich Jimmy Donahue. It was the closest she got in public to expressing her boredom and frustration.
This is a new book, and the newly discovered letters from Wallis to Ernest Simpson are of historical importance, but a much more vivid and fascinating dual-biography of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor was actually published 30 years ago: "The Windsor Story", by Bryan and Murphy.