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  • Published: 15 July 2018
  • ISBN: 9780141987354
  • Imprint: Penguin Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 160
  • RRP: $16.99
Categories:

Edward VIII (Penguin Monarchs)

The Uncrowned King




The acclaimed Penguin Monarchs series: short, fresh, expert accounts of England's rulers - now in paperback

'After my death', George V said of his eldest son and heir, 'the boy will ruin himself in 12 months'. From the death of his father in 1936 to the constitutional crisis provoked by his proposal to the then-married American socialite Wallis Simpson and his subsequent abdication, Edward VIII reigned for less than year. In choosing the woman he loved over his royal birthright, Edward fulfilled his father's prophecy and instigated the monarchy's most significant upheaval of the twentieth century. Retitled 'Duke of Windsor' and essentially exiled, Edward has remained a controversial figure ever since. Through his correspondence with, amongst other confidants, Winston Churchill, Piers Brendon traces Edward's tumultuous life in this superb, pacey biography.

  • Published: 15 July 2018
  • ISBN: 9780141987354
  • Imprint: Penguin Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 160
  • RRP: $16.99
Categories:

About the author

Piers Brendon

Piers Brendon is the author of more than a dozen books, including biographies of Churchill and Eisenhower, the best-selling Eminent Edwardians; The Windsors; The Dark Valley; The Hawker of Morwenstow; the highly acclaimed The Decline and Fall of the British Empire and, most recently, Eminent Elizabethans. He also writes for television and contributes frequently to the national press. Formerly Keeper of the Churchill Archives Centre, he is a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

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