That Woman: The Life of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor
Anne Sebba, 2012
St. Martin's Press
268 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781250002969
Summary
Twenty-five years after her death, Wallis Simpson exerts a more powerful fascination than ever. She became one of the most glamorous and vilified woman of the last century yet who was the real person behind the iconic image?
In the first full biography of the Duchess of Windsor by a woman, Anne Sibbe have tried to explore the mind and motivations of this enigmatic American divorcée who nearly became Queen of England and provide a new interpretation of what really happened during the abdication crisis.
Those who know only one thing about British history in the 1930s know about the King who abdicated because he could not continue "without the help and support of the woman I love." Yet many people cannot imagine who such a woman could be to exert such a powerful magnetic force on a man groomed from birth to do his duty as head not just of Britain but of a great Empire.
"That Woman," as she was referred to by the Queen Mother and other members of the Royal Family, became a hate figure for allegedly ensnaring a British king. Born in 1896 in Baltimore, Bessiewallis Warfield endured an impoverished and comparatively obscure childhood which inflamed a burning desire to rise above her circumstances. Neither beautiful nor brilliant and over 40 when she married the former King, she became one of the most talked about woman of her generation for inspiring such deep love and slavish adoration in Edward V111 that even renouncing a throne and an Empire for her was not enough to prove his total devotion.
Wallis lived by her wit and her wits, while both her apparent and alleged moral transgressions added to her aura and dazzle. Accused of fascist sympathies, having Nazi lovers and learning bizarre sexual techniques in China, she was the subject of widespread gossip and fascination that has only increased with the years. In death the duchess became a symbol of empowerment and a style icon often pitted against her assumed rival, the Queen Mother. Wallis Simpson was a woman whose unequivocal aim was to win in the game of life.
Based on new archives, interviews and material never before seen it is only now possible to write a biography with real understanding of the character and motivations of this complex woman at the heart of a key moment in history and to question: Was this really the romantic love story of the century? (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1951
• Where—London, England, UK
• Education—King's College, London
• Currently—lives in London, England
Anne Sebba is a British biographer, writer, lecturer and journalist. She is the author of eight non-fiction books for adults, two biographies for children and several introductions to reprinted classics.
Anne Sebba (nee Rubinstein) was born in London in 1951. She read History at King’s College, London (1969-72) and after a brief spell at the BBC World Service in Bush House joined Reuters as a graduate trainee, working in London and Rome, from 1972-8. She wrote her first book while living in New York and now lives in London.
Her discovery of an unpublished series of letters from Wallis Simpson to her second husband Ernest Simpson, shortly before her eventual marriage to the ex- King, Edward Vlll, later Duke of Windsor, formed the basis of a Channel 4 film, The Secret Letters, first shown on UK television in August 2011, and also a biography of Simpson, That Woman: The Life of Wallis Simpson Duchess of Windsor. The letters have led to a reappraisal of The Abdication Crisis. Sebba’s books have been translated into several languages including French, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Russian and Polish.
Since working as a correspondent for Reuters, Sebba has written for the (London) Times, Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Spectator, Times Higher Educational Supplement and the Independent.
In 2009 Sebba wrote and presented The Daffodil Maiden on BBC Radio 3, the story of the pianist Harriet Cohen. Cohen inspired the composer Arnold Bax when she wore a dress adorned with a single daffodil and became his mistress for the next 40 years. Gillian Reynolds, in the Daily Telegraph described it as a “frank and moving account...beautifully produced.” In 2010 she wrote and presented the documentary Who was Joyce Hatto? for BBC Radio 4.
In September 2009 Sebba joined the Management Committee of the Society of Authors. She is a longstanding member of English PEN and after several years on the Writers in Prison Committee served twice on the PEN Management Committee. She went to Turkey twice as an official observer for PEN for the trial of journalist Asiye Guzel Zeybeck. She has served on the judging panel of the Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Literary Prize and has twice been a judge for the Biographers’ Club awards. In 2012, Sebba spoke at the Beijing and Shanghai Literary Festivals and the Sydney Writers' Festival. (From Wikipedia.)
Book Reviews
Anne Sebba cuts through decades of rumor and mythology to try to reveal the truth about this woman and her extraordinary journey from upper-middle-class Baltimore girl to jet-setting royal mistress to lonely outcast.... The book's strength is that Sebba remains objective in telling the story of such a polarizing figure as Simpson. The king's paramour elicits empathy for the media scrutiny she had to endure and for the dilemma she faced as she realized she was trapped in a suffocating relationship. But Sebba doesn't skimp on unflattering details that reveal Simpson's cruel verbal abuse of her husband and her shallow fixation on her weight and wealth.
Sarah Halzack - Washington Post
In contrast to most British assessments of Wallis Warfield Spencer Simpson, later the Duchess of Windsor, this book is clear-sighted and unsentimental about, but relatively sympathetic to, the woman for whom King Edward VIII gave up his throne in 1936, shaking Britain and its royal family to the core.
And amazingly, after 75 years, there is new material to assess. Sebba has gained access to previously unexamined Simpson letters that reveal more about who she was, her fears and regrets during the abdication crisis, how she tried to prevent it and the marriage, and how she was nearly destroyed when the “romance of the century” was near universally condemned.
Maria Puente - USA Today
“I hope to humanize rather than demonize” the woman for whose sake King Edward VIII abdicated the British throne, writes Sebba (Jennie Churchill: Winston’s American Mother) in this controversial biography that was a bestseller in Britain. The author, using interviews, previously unavailable letters, and media accounts, explores how Simpson, a spunky Southern belle, changed her life after two divorces and numerous love affairs on two continents, seized the heart of then prince of Wales, and weathered the wrath of the royals and the hostile British press. Two startling speculations concerning Simpson’s medical and psychological state attribute her sexual fierceness and flirtatiousness to a possible form of hermaphroditism and the need to emphasize her femininity. Sebba discloses the tremendous pressure from the royal family and high society on the new king to place English tradition above his bond to the American divorcee with her dubious background. Sebba details the life after the abdication, in which the duchess proved herself a resourceful survivor. This accomplished biography is smart, eloquent, and unafraid to go beyond the myth of the duchess of Windsor.
Publishers Weekly
While the allure of Wallis Simpson and Edward VIII's story has lasted over 70 years, Sebba...presents the complex woman behind that relationship, who was not merely a social climber/seductress.... Verdict: Sebba dispels the myths that surround the pair (such as that theirs was a love story for the ages). Charles Higham's The Duchess of Windsor: The Secret Life spends more time on their alleged Nazi sympathies. Greg King's The Duchess of Windsor: The Uncommon Life of Wallis Simpson supports the love story and defends Wallis Simpson. Sebba's more nuanced biography should be included in any collection covering this subject. —Maria Bagshaw, West Dundee, IL
Library Journal
The story has been told many times but never seems to get old. Wallis Simpson, a twice-divorced American, took up with King Edward VIII of England, and, in 1936, he abdicated to marry her.... The author makes it clear that Wallis never intended to become the queen, but once she embarked on her affair, she found it impossible to back out, and when the prince suddenly became king, marriage was not what she had planned. Sexual proclivities and domineering personality traits all factor into Sebba’s picture of the Windsor relationship. For popular biography collections. —Brad Hooper
Booklist
An in-depth biography of the notorious Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor....pulls no punches in revealing the secrets of its subject.... It's impossible to know definitively, but Sebba's extensive research has led her to conclude that Wallis may have been born genetically male, but developed outwardly as a female, or, alternatively, that she was a pseudo-hermaphrodite.... Derisively referred to as "that woman" by the Queen Mother, Wallis is depicted, in grand detail, as cunning yet "irresistible" for her charismatic "personal sparkle." Salacious and consuming, this well-researched biography will appeal to readers interested in British political and women's history.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Why has Wallis been demonised for so long? What factors have contributed to a reassessment? Do you think revisionism is justified
2. Why might Wallis have been seen as pro- Nazi?
3. To what extent was her Americanism part of the problem? Can you understand why for some in America Wallis has always been a heroine? What characteristics of Wallis’s personality do you find admirable?
4. How do you explain the attitude of the Queen Mother towards Wallis and towards Wallis and Edward?
5. Was the denial of royal honours for Wallis justified in the circumstances or vindictive?
6. Why has Edward V111 been so little criticised?
7. Why are duty and pluck no longer revered compared with today’s goals such as ambition and personal fulfilment?
8. Has our attitude towards divorce changed for the better?
9. What about some of the other characters in my story: Why do you think Winston Churchill behaved as he did? Was Mary an admirable character?
10. What role do you think was played by the wives of politicians such as Lucy Baldwin, Nancy Dugdale Helen Hardinge and Hilda Runciman and why do you think their views have not been taken into account before?
11. Which of the characters do you feel most sympathy for: Mary, Ernest, Henry/Aharon, Aunt Bessie, Alan "Tommy"Lascelles? Which of the characters do you feel should have done more to understand or guide Edward earlier in his life e.g. his parents, his private secretaries, the Archbishop of Canterbury and other church leaders or his girlfriends?
12. Do you agree that Wallis performed a useful service by delivering a new monarch for such critical times?
13. How should she be remembered? As a style icon and if so why? Describe her style. Or as a victim and if so why?
14. Do you believe every generation has a different attitude to key personalities according to historical context?
(Questions from author's website.)
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