After Edward VIII abdicated, he spent the rest of his life trying to find another good sinecure. At one point he created a draft of his memoirs for potential publication in Life magazine. He began writing in 1947. Edward, while no rocket scientist, certainly got to meet a lot of people.
Tippett has assembled extracts from Edward’s writings; commentaries by the Life journalist who was to be his ghost writer, and her own editorial.
Edward was not much of a writer, even less of an observer. The section that deals with his interactions with the Nazis is revealing. Famously, Edward and Wallis visited Nazi Germany in October 1937 spending an afternoon with Hitler at Berchtesgaden. His insights? ‘Hitler was taller than one imagines, very vigorous, very serious.’
He describes Goering as a ‘gent’ but was unimpressed by the more plebian Nazis. Evidently not because of what they believed, rather because they were coarse and lewd.
October 1937 was before Anschluss, Krystalnacht and the Sudeten Land. Europe was full of people who still thought the Nazis could be handled. But it was after the Night of the Long Knives and the Nuremberg Laws and any astute observer had reached the conclusions Churchill had.
The fact that the former King, who spoke and read German and had spent two years at Oxford took so little from the meeting says a lot about the effect of his upbringing. Edward died in 1972 and his memoirs were never published.
Once a King is one for fans of the Crown.
Reviewed by Grant Hansen
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jane Tippett is a historian and archivist. She graduated from University of Delaware with a BA in French, History and English Literature. She received her MSt. in History of Art from Wadham College, Oxford, where she wrote her dissertation on the centrality of provenance in the contemporary fine art auction market. Since graduating she has worked as a consultant archivist and fine arts curator to high net worth families in New York City, Boston, London and Paris. She currently lives between New York and London.
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