by Anne Sebba
First published 2011
Wallis Simpson transforms from an impoverished Baltimore girl into the most controversial woman of her era. Historian Anne Sebba delivers the first comprehensive female perspective on the American divorcee who captivated Edward VIII. Born Bessiewallis Warfield in 1895, Simpson possessed neither striking beauty nor exceptional intellect, yet she inspired a British king to abandon his throne and empire. Sebba traces Simpson's calculated rise from obscurity, examining how wit and determination propelled her into royal circles. The biography explores accusations that swirled around Simpson throughout her life: alleged fascist connections, rumored Nazi affairs, and whispered tales of exotic sexual practices learned in China. Politicians of the 1930s manipulated the constitutional crisis for their own ends while Simpson became a lightning rod for public hatred. The Queen Mother dismissed her as "that woman," but Simpson's influence extended far beyond the abdication. Using recently opened archives, Sebba questions whether the century's most famous love story was genuine romance or calculated ambition. She reveals Simpson as a complex figure who lived entirely on her own terms, ultimately becoming both a symbol of female empowerment and an enduring style icon.
Genres: biography, historical, 20th-century, non-fiction, 21st-century
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Setting: Baltimore, China, United Kingdom
Period: 1895, 1930s
354 pages · Hardcover · London : Weidenfeld & Nicolson