Once a King: The Lost Memoir of Edward VIII

Aiming “to give the Windsors back their voice,” journalist Tippett debuts with a sympathetic presentation of a newly found memoir by King Edward VIII, later the Duke of Windsor (1894–1972), who famously abdicated the throne in 1936 to marry American divorcée Wallis Simpson. Tippett begins with her late 2010s discovery of “an archival feast”—following a trail of breadcrumbs that began at Boston University, she eventually uncovered in the U.K.’s Royal Archives a “never-before-seen” handwritten draft of Edward’s memoir (published in 1951 as A King’s Story) containing many “personal reflections” that had been excised from the original publication, as well as transcripts of interviews with his ghostwriter, Life magazine reporter Charles Murphy, and other documents. Adding her own editorial comments throughout the excerpted text of these records, Tippett makes astute observations about Edward’s personality and intimate life, especially when she notes how his extensive traveling during his tenure as the Prince of Wales “separated” him emotionally “from his family and traditional court life,” and that his abdication and love for Simpson can partly be traced back to an “increasing obsession” with America. Tippett also makes a slightly more forced but still intriguing effort to show Edward was less open to the Nazis than is widely believed. The result is an insightful blend of memoir and royal family history. (Mar.)