Book 342

That Woman:  The Life of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor, by Anne Sebba, St. Martin's Press, 2011.

I bought this book at a thrift store a couple of weeks ago.  It's going back.

Usually, I finish a book in a night or two, even biographies. This book took me five nights. I'm not questioning my reading skills. 

The information about her pre-marriage years was new to me, the rest of the story I pretty much knew. The long lens of history is perhaps more sympathetic than the earlier accounts that were written at the time, or soon after, the events in question occurred. Even with the more sympathetic view, I'm pretty sure I would not have liked Wallis, but I might have admired her a bit. In retrospect, I think, by now, most Britons agree that Edward would have made a weak king. Wallis may have ruined the man, but the man as king would have ruined the nation.