What do you think?
Rate this book
The Last of the Duchess: The Strange and Sinister Story of the Final Years of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor
In 1980, Lady Caroline Blackwood was commissioned by The Sunday Times to write an article on the aging Duchess of Windsor, who was said to be convalescing in her French mansion in the Bois de Boulogne. Yet what began as a curiosity was to become for Blackwood one of the most challenging experiences of her writing career, launching her into a battle of wits with the Duchess's formidable lawyer, Maître Suzanne Blum.
Maître Blum refused to let Blackwood near the Duchess, spinning elaborate excuses as to why she was unavailable and threatening anyone who dared suggest that she was in anything other than the best of health. Still, while Blum's machinations restricted Blackwood's ability to publish a frank interview, it only served to pique her interest in the bizarre relationship between the infamous Duchess—a woman who once inspired a king to abdicate his crown—and her eccentric, domineering gatekeeper. Sixteen years later, Blackwood turned her experiences into this riveting and excoriating modern classic about the frailties of old age, the foibles of society, and the dual-edged nature of celebrity.
Maître Blum refused to let Blackwood near the Duchess, spinning elaborate excuses as to why she was unavailable and threatening anyone who dared suggest that she was in anything other than the best of health. Still, while Blum's machinations restricted Blackwood's ability to publish a frank interview, it only served to pique her interest in the bizarre relationship between the infamous Duchess—a woman who once inspired a king to abdicate his crown—and her eccentric, domineering gatekeeper. Sixteen years later, Blackwood turned her experiences into this riveting and excoriating modern classic about the frailties of old age, the foibles of society, and the dual-edged nature of celebrity.
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
188 people are currently reading
1543 people want to read
About the author
Caroline Blackwood
16 books161 followerswas a writer, and the eldest child of The 4th Marquess of Dufferin and Ava and the brewery heiress Maureen Guinness.
A well-known figure in the literary world through her journalism and her novels, Lady Caroline Blackwood was equally well known for her high-profile marriages, first to the artist Lucian Freud, then to the composer Israel Citkowitz and finally to the poet Robert Lowell, who described her as "a mermaid who dines upon the bones of her winded lovers". Her novels are known for their wit and intelligence, and one in particular is scathingly autobiographical in describing her unhappy childhood.
She was born into an Anglo-Irish aristocratic family from Ulster at 4 Hans Crescent in Knightsbridge, her parents' London home. She was, she admitted, "scantily educated" at, among other schools, Rockport School (County Down) and Downham (Essex). After a finishing school in Oxford she was presented as a debutante in 1949 at a ball held at Londonderry House.
A well-known figure in the literary world through her journalism and her novels, Lady Caroline Blackwood was equally well known for her high-profile marriages, first to the artist Lucian Freud, then to the composer Israel Citkowitz and finally to the poet Robert Lowell, who described her as "a mermaid who dines upon the bones of her winded lovers". Her novels are known for their wit and intelligence, and one in particular is scathingly autobiographical in describing her unhappy childhood.
She was born into an Anglo-Irish aristocratic family from Ulster at 4 Hans Crescent in Knightsbridge, her parents' London home. She was, she admitted, "scantily educated" at, among other schools, Rockport School (County Down) and Downham (Essex). After a finishing school in Oxford she was presented as a debutante in 1949 at a ball held at Londonderry House.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 106 reviews
August 27, 2017
Fact is sometimes stranger than fiction. The following story is factual. In 1976, Wallis, the Duchess of Windsor, appointed Maitre Suzanne Blum as her Power of Attorney. For ten long years, her life would be solely under the supervision of this formidable French lawyer.
In 1980, Caroline Blackwood is commissioned by the Sunday Times to interview Wallis, Duchess of Windsor; an interview which would accompany the photograph which Royal photographer, Lord Snowden, wanted to take. The Duchess had always been a figure of mystery and allure to Blackwood who was a child when the future King of England gave up his throne for ‘The Woman He Loved’.
Like any good journalist, Blackwood researches what she can of Wallis’ current situation. Interviewing friends, acquaintances and newspaper reports, she hear a variety of dispiriting claims about the Duchess i.e. she is either paralysed, comatose, a prisoner of Blum, she’s being kept alive by artificial means. She learns that the Duchess is kept hidden away in a locked and barred house, with a staff of only trusted employees hand picked by Blum. From every source, she hears that Blum has always thwarted communication with the Duchess herself. No-one has the courage to confront this 'writ-happy' French woman.
Heading to Paris, Blackwood encounters Maitre Suzanne Blum but she finds all her requests for the interview blocked. She realises that Blum is a force to be reckoned with, with a reputation for suing anyone who writes anything unauthorised regarding her frail ‘charge’. Blackwood will hear Blum come up with the most surprising, bizarre and startling ‘facts’ about Wallis’ current state of health. These claims, quite contrary to any other which Blackwood has heard, come in a manner of ways, screamed, hissed, shouted, and delivered with malevolence; Blum is brim with glaring hostility as she responded to Blackwood’s queries. You have to pity Blackwood! And the claims: “The Duchess speaks every three weeks.” “The Duchess is going to live to a hundred!” “The Duchess never drank.” Really? “The Duchess never danced.” “The Duchess is beautiful” ?? (remember, she’s 84!) “She is covered with flowers.” ???
Interestingly, a number of the Duchess’ treasures start to appear in auction rooms; Royal jewels given to her by the Duke, items from the Royal snuff box collection and the like; but no-one dares confront Blum. Love letters between the Duke and the Duchess appear in a book edited by Michael Bloch, Blum's faithful secretary. Then startlingly, in 1982 Blum then gave out a bizarre announcement to the press in which she claimed that the Duchess of Windsor had made a miraculous recovery and it was now a problem as to how to amuse her! The Duchess was starting to sound like a Lazarus to me!
In an even stranger turn of events, it is Blum herself whose portrait is captured by Snowden! Blackwood regales the bizarre ‘interviews’, with candour, witticism and her disbelief is evident. You have to read this account of the interviews to fully understand the strange connection between Maitre Blum and the Duchess.
The Duchess of Windsor died on 24th April in 1986 and Blum, herself, lived until 1994. Due to the threat of legal reprisal, it was not until 1995 that this account could be published. There is no way I would have believed this was the way the Duchess of Windsor's life would pan out. Captivating, interesting and sometimes shocking; this book was a real 'page-turner' for me. 4★
In 1980, Caroline Blackwood is commissioned by the Sunday Times to interview Wallis, Duchess of Windsor; an interview which would accompany the photograph which Royal photographer, Lord Snowden, wanted to take. The Duchess had always been a figure of mystery and allure to Blackwood who was a child when the future King of England gave up his throne for ‘The Woman He Loved’.
Like any good journalist, Blackwood researches what she can of Wallis’ current situation. Interviewing friends, acquaintances and newspaper reports, she hear a variety of dispiriting claims about the Duchess i.e. she is either paralysed, comatose, a prisoner of Blum, she’s being kept alive by artificial means. She learns that the Duchess is kept hidden away in a locked and barred house, with a staff of only trusted employees hand picked by Blum. From every source, she hears that Blum has always thwarted communication with the Duchess herself. No-one has the courage to confront this 'writ-happy' French woman.
Heading to Paris, Blackwood encounters Maitre Suzanne Blum but she finds all her requests for the interview blocked. She realises that Blum is a force to be reckoned with, with a reputation for suing anyone who writes anything unauthorised regarding her frail ‘charge’. Blackwood will hear Blum come up with the most surprising, bizarre and startling ‘facts’ about Wallis’ current state of health. These claims, quite contrary to any other which Blackwood has heard, come in a manner of ways, screamed, hissed, shouted, and delivered with malevolence; Blum is brim with glaring hostility as she responded to Blackwood’s queries. You have to pity Blackwood! And the claims: “The Duchess speaks every three weeks.” “The Duchess is going to live to a hundred!” “The Duchess never drank.” Really? “The Duchess never danced.” “The Duchess is beautiful” ?? (remember, she’s 84!) “She is covered with flowers.” ???
Interestingly, a number of the Duchess’ treasures start to appear in auction rooms; Royal jewels given to her by the Duke, items from the Royal snuff box collection and the like; but no-one dares confront Blum. Love letters between the Duke and the Duchess appear in a book edited by Michael Bloch, Blum's faithful secretary. Then startlingly, in 1982 Blum then gave out a bizarre announcement to the press in which she claimed that the Duchess of Windsor had made a miraculous recovery and it was now a problem as to how to amuse her! The Duchess was starting to sound like a Lazarus to me!
In an even stranger turn of events, it is Blum herself whose portrait is captured by Snowden! Blackwood regales the bizarre ‘interviews’, with candour, witticism and her disbelief is evident. You have to read this account of the interviews to fully understand the strange connection between Maitre Blum and the Duchess.
The Duchess of Windsor died on 24th April in 1986 and Blum, herself, lived until 1994. Due to the threat of legal reprisal, it was not until 1995 that this account could be published. There is no way I would have believed this was the way the Duchess of Windsor's life would pan out. Captivating, interesting and sometimes shocking; this book was a real 'page-turner' for me. 4★
February 26, 2019
I made the assumption that this book actually included an interview with the Duchess of Windsor when she was at the end of her life. Wrong! The author, on a newspaper assignment, to write an article about Wallis Windsor, decided to turn her experience into a book. Wrong again!
Instead, this is a book about the attorney, Mâitre Suzanne Blum, who totally controlled the Duchess, from her wealth to any public pronouncements about her physical condition. She was an angry, nasty woman who insulted anyone who came close to the Duchess, who was bedridden at the time of the book's writing. Her descriptions of her "client" were almost totally figments of her imagination; i.e. the Duchess received thousands of letters a month from admirers. To say the least, her relationship with the Duchess was odd.
I was disappointed as I expected to learn something about the last years of Wallis Windsor but that was not to be. The title was misleading and the content barely kept my attention enough to finish the book.
Instead, this is a book about the attorney, Mâitre Suzanne Blum, who totally controlled the Duchess, from her wealth to any public pronouncements about her physical condition. She was an angry, nasty woman who insulted anyone who came close to the Duchess, who was bedridden at the time of the book's writing. Her descriptions of her "client" were almost totally figments of her imagination; i.e. the Duchess received thousands of letters a month from admirers. To say the least, her relationship with the Duchess was odd.
I was disappointed as I expected to learn something about the last years of Wallis Windsor but that was not to be. The title was misleading and the content barely kept my attention enough to finish the book.
February 26, 2017
This book is more of a memoir of how Caroline was trying to get information about the Wallis the Duchess of Windsor, and she found a huge obstacle in the way by the name of Maitre Blum: the Duchess lawyer and spokesperson.
This book was not published till the death of the lawyer, as she was famous for suing any journalist or newspaper for writing anything she deemed not nice about the duchess.
When the quest begins to know how the duchess is doing.. the readers understand from the gossip that she is 84 years, bedridden, perhaps in and out of consciousness, doesn't meet any of her usual friends, some say Maitre Blum is keeping her alive through a feeding pipe through the nose.
Caroline Blackwood feels like a gonzo journalist as she is putting us right there in all her interview with the Lawyer, her editor, the various ladies and sirs who know the duchess.
As readers we are learning and reading about events that covered most of the 20th century.
I think the book should have been called The journalist and the lawyer: the last years of the Duchess.
This book was not published till the death of the lawyer, as she was famous for suing any journalist or newspaper for writing anything she deemed not nice about the duchess.
When the quest begins to know how the duchess is doing.. the readers understand from the gossip that she is 84 years, bedridden, perhaps in and out of consciousness, doesn't meet any of her usual friends, some say Maitre Blum is keeping her alive through a feeding pipe through the nose.
Caroline Blackwood feels like a gonzo journalist as she is putting us right there in all her interview with the Lawyer, her editor, the various ladies and sirs who know the duchess.
As readers we are learning and reading about events that covered most of the 20th century.
I think the book should have been called The journalist and the lawyer: the last years of the Duchess.
November 16, 2017
Mm... diciamo che non è esattamente il libro che ti aspetti.
Perché l'autrice non riesce a parlare con la duchessa, rimbalza contro l'assurda situazione degli ultimi anni di vita di Wallis Windsor, segregata in casa dall'avvocato che avrebbe dovuto prendersi cura di lei, allontanata dagli amici, isolata dal mondo.
Caroline Blackwood racconta dunque tutti i suoi giri, gli incontri e lo strano, inquietante personaggio di Suzanne Blum, morbosamente attaccata alla duchessa e decisa a fare causa a chiunque non dipinga la Santa Wallis che a lei piace immaginare.
Strano.
Perché l'autrice non riesce a parlare con la duchessa, rimbalza contro l'assurda situazione degli ultimi anni di vita di Wallis Windsor, segregata in casa dall'avvocato che avrebbe dovuto prendersi cura di lei, allontanata dagli amici, isolata dal mondo.
Caroline Blackwood racconta dunque tutti i suoi giri, gli incontri e lo strano, inquietante personaggio di Suzanne Blum, morbosamente attaccata alla duchessa e decisa a fare causa a chiunque non dipinga la Santa Wallis che a lei piace immaginare.
Strano.
July 10, 2015
Looking at that title, it strikes me that Blackwood was slyly invoking the menacing association from Browning's "That's my last Duchess..." Whether or not the reference was intended, Blackwood certainly makes it clear that she found the circumstances of Wallis Windsor's last years, and particularly her secretive guardian lawyer, "maitre" Suzanne Blum, very sinister indeed.
Blackwood narrates her unsuccessful attempts to see the Duchess, her three interviews with Blum, and her various researches into both women, largely from interviews with surviving friends and associates. This was in the early 80s, and Blackwood's book didn't come out until after the death not only of the Duchess but of Blum as well. It very quickly becomes apparent why, when one reads the colourful and scathing characterization of Blum, not to mention Blum's notoriously litigious habits. I suspect that the eventual appearance of this volume was by way of amends for Blackwood's article about Blum following the interviews, which she characterizes, with obvious distaste, as particularly fawning and complimentary.
I haven't read much about Edward and Wallis, so the cast of characters was all new and interesting to me: that includes Blackwood herself (who is definitely a character in her narrative). She passed away a year after the first edition in 1995, and there is some discussion of her in the introduction to the recent edition (2011) by her friend James Fox. I wonder whether the new edition was in direct reaction to one of the biographical works by Blum's protege, Michael Bloch.
So was Wallis actually dead, or kept cruelly alive during those long final years in Blum's custody? Were Blum and her sidekick selling off royal property Edward and Wallis had kept? The answers are not definitive, but we are left with a definite, and shamefully rather gleeful, shiver.
Blackwood narrates her unsuccessful attempts to see the Duchess, her three interviews with Blum, and her various researches into both women, largely from interviews with surviving friends and associates. This was in the early 80s, and Blackwood's book didn't come out until after the death not only of the Duchess but of Blum as well. It very quickly becomes apparent why, when one reads the colourful and scathing characterization of Blum, not to mention Blum's notoriously litigious habits. I suspect that the eventual appearance of this volume was by way of amends for Blackwood's article about Blum following the interviews, which she characterizes, with obvious distaste, as particularly fawning and complimentary.
I haven't read much about Edward and Wallis, so the cast of characters was all new and interesting to me: that includes Blackwood herself (who is definitely a character in her narrative). She passed away a year after the first edition in 1995, and there is some discussion of her in the introduction to the recent edition (2011) by her friend James Fox. I wonder whether the new edition was in direct reaction to one of the biographical works by Blum's protege, Michael Bloch.
So was Wallis actually dead, or kept cruelly alive during those long final years in Blum's custody? Were Blum and her sidekick selling off royal property Edward and Wallis had kept? The answers are not definitive, but we are left with a definite, and shamefully rather gleeful, shiver.
April 17, 2011
Caroline Blackwood casts a very cold eye on the duchess in her old age. Forbidden to see her or interview her by her dragonlike lawyer, Blackwood interviews her friends and speculates on the gossip. Is the duchess a dried up fossil held prisoner by her butler? Is she swollen to twice her former size? Has she turned black, as another friend tells her? Are her jewels being secretly sold around Paris? All the funniest old and later rumors are trotted out and detailed. Blackwood's satiric voice is subtle, sharp and, like good satire should be, everything is stretched to the limit.
February 12, 2023
Cumple con el propósito del chisme, digo yo. La autora iba a hacer un artículo sobre Wallis Simpson, pues Lord Snowden iba a fotografiarla. Pero las fotos jamás se tomaron porque la abogada de Wallis no autorizó. Así que, no hubo tampoco artículo pero si libro con lo que la autora cree que pudo haber pasado.
O sea, nada le consta. Y aún así lo leí (le fallé a mi parte anti Martha Debayle). Que vidas tan vacías, donde lo más importante era deslumbrar a los otros.
O sea, nada le consta. Y aún así lo leí (le fallé a mi parte anti Martha Debayle). Que vidas tan vacías, donde lo más importante era deslumbrar a los otros.
June 24, 2021
Es el relato de los últimos años de la vida de Wallis Simpson, la duquesa de Windsor. La mujer que hizo abdicar al rey Eduardo VIII.
Encerrada en su casa de París, sin contacto con amigos, aparentemente muy enferma o senil.
En realidad, el libro es el resultado de una serie de entrevistas que realizó la autora a Suzanne Blum, la abogada francesa y apoderada de la duquesa, que armó un cerco alrededor de modo que ni sus amigos podían visitarla.
Gran parte del libro se va en las interpretaciones de la motivaciones del porqué la abogada hizo eso: ¿económicas? ¿románticas? ¿psicológicas?
También hay entrevistas a las amigas de la duquesa como para elucidar lo que sucedió y muchos detalles históricos pero tomados de otros libros. Se escribió bastante del tema.
Entretenido pero demasiadas elucubraciones de lo que al final no se aclara.
Encerrada en su casa de París, sin contacto con amigos, aparentemente muy enferma o senil.
En realidad, el libro es el resultado de una serie de entrevistas que realizó la autora a Suzanne Blum, la abogada francesa y apoderada de la duquesa, que armó un cerco alrededor de modo que ni sus amigos podían visitarla.
Gran parte del libro se va en las interpretaciones de la motivaciones del porqué la abogada hizo eso: ¿económicas? ¿románticas? ¿psicológicas?
También hay entrevistas a las amigas de la duquesa como para elucidar lo que sucedió y muchos detalles históricos pero tomados de otros libros. Se escribió bastante del tema.
Entretenido pero demasiadas elucubraciones de lo que al final no se aclara.
July 10, 2021
Gossipy, salacious, and purely speculative. Perhaps all that might have been forgiven if THE LAST DUCHESS wasn’t so tedious and boring a book. How do you make a book about Wallis Warfield Simpson, Duchess of Windsor, boring? Put it in the hands of a journalist with no real feel for her subject and whose writing is drenched in condescension toward the person she is writing about. A terrible book. Worst of all, it wasn’t really about Wallis as much as it was about the attorney who handled her care at the end of Wallis’s life and the author’s maneuverings to get to see the Duchess (never happened) and simpering reportage of interviews rehashing the same old stories of the Duchess’s (now ancient) friends.
I only trudged through this book because it is part of my reading challenge. Glad to have that one behind me!
I only trudged through this book because it is part of my reading challenge. Glad to have that one behind me!
October 2, 2023
Una novela sorprendente que, lejos de centrarse en dos de los miembros más polémicos de la familia Windsor (Eduardo VIII y Wallis Simpson), lo hace en una persona aparentemente anónima pero que realmente fue la mano que mecía la cuna en todo lo referente a esta mediática pareja.
Propuesta como la crónica de un reportaje periodístico fallido, esta novela nos descubrirá el mundo de mentiras y verdades a medias que construyó la octogenaria abogada Suzanne Blum para aislar a su protegida, la duquesa de Windsor, del mundo real. Un personaje tan mezquino y sibilino como desprotegido y enternecedor. Una vida al servicio de un ideal inexistente, un estudio sobre la decadencia y los delirios de grandeza. Una novela imprescindible para los fans de 'The Crown'.
Propuesta como la crónica de un reportaje periodístico fallido, esta novela nos descubrirá el mundo de mentiras y verdades a medias que construyó la octogenaria abogada Suzanne Blum para aislar a su protegida, la duquesa de Windsor, del mundo real. Un personaje tan mezquino y sibilino como desprotegido y enternecedor. Una vida al servicio de un ideal inexistente, un estudio sobre la decadencia y los delirios de grandeza. Una novela imprescindible para los fans de 'The Crown'.
February 23, 2022
Me ha parecido un poco repetitivo, pero refleja bien el proceso de entrevistar a la duquesa i guess
February 21, 2013
This book, like so many, could have done with more stringent editing, but in spite of some repetitions it reads very well. My interest in the British Monarchy is minimal, and it's the fact that Caroline Blackwood was the author that attracted me to this book. Sure enough, her lucid style proved just the thing to bring to life the dismal story, or rather non-story, of the last years of the Duchess of Windsor, bereft of most of her faculties and at the mercy of a vindictive and possibly slightly crazed lawyer, Maître Suzanne Blum. Blackwood never quite managed to take the full measure of that extraordinary character, one of the first women to be called to the bar in France, but the minutes of her interviews with her are fascinating. The 2 women, the flighty Duchess whose greatest claim to fame was that she drove a Royal twit crazy, and the brainy puritanical lawyer who could issue death threats without blinking, are polar opposites and yet Blackwood is able to tease out of their life story some common thread that makes sense. In its category, "The Last of the Duchess" is a superb piece of reportage, reminding us of the many gifts of Caroline Blackwood.
March 11, 2017
If you're looking for a biography of the Duchess of Windsor, this isn't it. It's more of a biography of her Parisian lawyer, Suzanne Blum, but much of the book is just speculation and gossip about both women. It's interesting, don't get me wrong, but there's not a lot of hard facts in here.
It's also quite depressing. If someone who was as well known and well off as Wallis, Duchess of Windsor could end up being essentially locked away from the world for her last 10 years, and no one was doing anything about it... doesn't seem to leave much hope for the rest of us, really.
It's also quite depressing. If someone who was as well known and well off as Wallis, Duchess of Windsor could end up being essentially locked away from the world for her last 10 years, and no one was doing anything about it... doesn't seem to leave much hope for the rest of us, really.
May 19, 2017
Tedious
I struggled through the majority of this book. Far too much time was spent making assumptions regarding the relationship between The Duchess and Maitre Blum. I didn't enjoy this book until the last three or four chapters when more definitive information was revealed about the actual fate of Wallis Simpson. I cannot recommend reading this book.
I struggled through the majority of this book. Far too much time was spent making assumptions regarding the relationship between The Duchess and Maitre Blum. I didn't enjoy this book until the last three or four chapters when more definitive information was revealed about the actual fate of Wallis Simpson. I cannot recommend reading this book.
February 7, 2015
This book was not about Wallis Simpson as I had hoped but more about the author and her inability to meet with the Duchess in the last years of her life. Much of the book was focused on a scathing description of the duchess' lawyer. I actually found the book incredible boring and disappointing.
Read
August 19, 2025Una coge este libro, porque le apetece un poco de salseo protagonizado por gente objetivamente horrible, pero como una tiene vocación de intensa le guste o no, acaba meditando acerca de la vejez y la enfermedad, y la terrible soledad que estas conllevan. Es "un oscuro cuento de hadas", como el prefacio indica, poblado de figuras interesantísimas pero a las que llegamos en el último acto de sus vidas, algo muy poco común en la producción cultural.
La protagonista inequívoca de todo esto es Suzanne Blum, la letrada Blum, la albacea-tutora-carcelera de Wallis y #girlboss primigenia, una figura de proporciones míticas, temida por todos y que resulta ser aún más esquiva que la propia duquesa de Windsor. Termino el libro con una enorme curiosidad por la letrada (una de las primeras mujeres en ejercer la abogacía en Francia), lo cual dice mucho de la capacidad de Blackwood para insuflarle vida en estas páginas.
O sea, que me ha encantado.
La protagonista inequívoca de todo esto es Suzanne Blum, la letrada Blum, la albacea-tutora-carcelera de Wallis y #girlboss primigenia, una figura de proporciones míticas, temida por todos y que resulta ser aún más esquiva que la propia duquesa de Windsor. Termino el libro con una enorme curiosidad por la letrada (una de las primeras mujeres en ejercer la abogacía en Francia), lo cual dice mucho de la capacidad de Blackwood para insuflarle vida en estas páginas.
O sea, que me ha encantado.
August 16, 2022
Entretenido pero llego a ser muy tedioso y repetitivo.
November 24, 2017
What an incredibly sad book. It's supposed to be funny, but while the author describes in gross detail how unstable and formidable the Duchess of Windsor's lawyer is, she seems unconcerned that clearly an act of elder abuse is happening under hers and other people's noses and apparently nobody can do anything about it--but the truth is that nobody really tries because they are too "scared" (don't care enough--it's too interesting to wonder what's happening than really find out the probably horrifying truth). It is appalling that the journalist had hints about the severity of the abuse (sexual? medical?) and she still chose to make the whole situation into a joke.
Furthermore, some journalist. She has plenty of opportunity to ask the right questions and never does. She doesn't ask, "Why can nobody see the Duchess?" She's even at the house where she's supposedly living, talking with the butler who has served the Duchess for three decades and fails to ask, "Why can't anyone see her? Are the rumors true? Are you hiding her because it would unmask Suzanne Blum's treatment of her?" Many of her questions to her interviewees are leading and result in unrevealing answers.
The strange, stilted tone of this book, its finding humor in a living and present tragedy, and its whole existence is unsettling. Why was this book not published until after Blum's death? Surely if this story had come out, all the lawsuits in the world couldn't have saved Blum from being exposed as a narcissist and a sadist.
Furthermore, some journalist. She has plenty of opportunity to ask the right questions and never does. She doesn't ask, "Why can nobody see the Duchess?" She's even at the house where she's supposedly living, talking with the butler who has served the Duchess for three decades and fails to ask, "Why can't anyone see her? Are the rumors true? Are you hiding her because it would unmask Suzanne Blum's treatment of her?" Many of her questions to her interviewees are leading and result in unrevealing answers.
The strange, stilted tone of this book, its finding humor in a living and present tragedy, and its whole existence is unsettling. Why was this book not published until after Blum's death? Surely if this story had come out, all the lawsuits in the world couldn't have saved Blum from being exposed as a narcissist and a sadist.
May 20, 2013
Some synopses have indicated that this is not really about the Duchess, but more about Maitre Blum, her lawyer & caretaker. This is true. The title is misleading. A fascinating book about a complex woman, who is perhaps sinister & a little nuts. The brief allusions to the Duchess herself portray her as a shallow, vain & insecure woman, but we don't know if this is true, because the author never meets or even sees her. A book worth reading, but don't expect to learn much about the Duchess of Windsor.
January 16, 2022
This book is pure gossip. The writer is assigned to find what is really happening to Wallis Simpson. She's been ill for a long time and nobody seems to know if she is alive or dead. She managed to speak to her lawyer and she didn't get a lot of information from her. So instead, she wrote this book explaining how awful the lawyer was. She also spoke with a lot of old ladies, most of them seniles, who knew the Duchess of Windsor to a greater or lesser extent. The results of these conversations and a lot of quotes of the biography written by J. Bryann compound the whole book. Read that instead.
December 30, 2012
Just such an absolutely bizarrely fascinating book. Nothing at all really about Wallis Simpson... just more of a monologue really of the author's attempt to interview the Duchess in her final decade. The writing was so different from anything else I've read that I was completely engrossed, but I honestly don't know that I would have finished it if a) I hadn't been trying to get my "books read in 2012" count up and b) I wasn't on a bit of a holiday.
March 13, 2021
This might be the dumbest book I've ever read. I stuck with it because I kept thinking the author would eventually decide to do some research and provide some facts, but it turned out to be just a flimsy gossip rag, poorly written and with NO INFORMATION about the Duchess of Windsor. I don't understand how it got published.
November 11, 2021
Maybe a 1.5. Just wondering how many times a name can be mentioned in a book. Also the title is very misleading and it reads more like fiction than facts. There is very little other than insinuation about Wallis Simpson and this is more a book about the lawyer, Maitre Blum who spent the last 10 years of the Duchess's life stripping her of everything she had left.
Read
March 27, 2009a great trove of gossip about the Fascist-loving nobility of latter-day Britain. Why was the Duchess carting her Faberge eggs to every fucking English manor house to which she was invited for the weekend? That is the current question I'm contemplating.
December 14, 2014
I got about 30 pages in and gave up. This wasn't about the duchess, or even about the people around the duchess. It was the author's wandering thoughts and imaginary scandals. I thought it was really sensational enough without her throwing in speculation. Pictures would have been nice too.
October 18, 2017
This book struck me as two things - being about the people around Wallis Simpson & the hunt for information relating to Wallis. In this instance, I wasn't so much interested in the research process & the hunt, as much as I wanted to read about Wallis Simpson. Definitely a bit unfortunate.
December 14, 2013
Just the authors blather and speculation. Terrible waste of my time.
July 21, 2016
I did not know what to expect when I picked up this book. It was not a typical biography about Wallis Simpson. I was pleasantly surprised by its unique perspective.
January 21, 2024
Phew. Came to this one with a decent understanding of British Monarchy and its generational fealty/aesthetic and political engagements with Nazism. To this day, researchers who foray into the Royal Archives to seek truth regarding these matters will find themselves facing a brick wall of restrictions on the materials that would otherwise help us better understand those monstrous years and -- possibly, maybe -- find collective healing.
To that end, this book is awash in sources and subjects who held Nazi sympathies: Diana Mitford Mosley, along with the Duke and Duchess of Windsor themselves. The episodic The Crown is, by and large a romanticized version of Western Power in the 20th century. As a result, depictions of Simpson serve to uplift Queen Elizabeth II as a unwaveringly benevolent and worldly figure: thus the project was, over the course of six seasons, fated to deviate from historic truth for which an anti-imperialist public hungers.
A member of the aristocracy herself, Blackwood's biography provides meaningful insights into the final stretch of the American expat's life. Most notably, the uncanny relationship she developed with a French attorney, a Jewish woman, who served as the pit bull of her estate. Blackwood paints Blum as a megalomaniacal figure. Uncertain whether it is my Americanness, the time at which the book was originally published, or general skepticism that leads me to ponder the anti-Semitism ensconced in the author's stance. The first chapters center Blum keeping Blackwood, then a journalist, at bay, and the writer's dialogues with other members of the aristocracy who were rattled by the lawyer's loyalty.
Nonetheless, this landmine is not without pearls of information regarding Simpson's final years in isolation, including her loss of faculties and Blum's impact on her estate. Of interest to queer scholars and armchair historians might be her affair with Jimmy Donahue, a godless Woolworth's heir and flamboyant gay man.
To that end, this book is awash in sources and subjects who held Nazi sympathies: Diana Mitford Mosley, along with the Duke and Duchess of Windsor themselves. The episodic The Crown is, by and large a romanticized version of Western Power in the 20th century. As a result, depictions of Simpson serve to uplift Queen Elizabeth II as a unwaveringly benevolent and worldly figure: thus the project was, over the course of six seasons, fated to deviate from historic truth for which an anti-imperialist public hungers.
A member of the aristocracy herself, Blackwood's biography provides meaningful insights into the final stretch of the American expat's life. Most notably, the uncanny relationship she developed with a French attorney, a Jewish woman, who served as the pit bull of her estate. Blackwood paints Blum as a megalomaniacal figure. Uncertain whether it is my Americanness, the time at which the book was originally published, or general skepticism that leads me to ponder the anti-Semitism ensconced in the author's stance. The first chapters center Blum keeping Blackwood, then a journalist, at bay, and the writer's dialogues with other members of the aristocracy who were rattled by the lawyer's loyalty.
Nonetheless, this landmine is not without pearls of information regarding Simpson's final years in isolation, including her loss of faculties and Blum's impact on her estate. Of interest to queer scholars and armchair historians might be her affair with Jimmy Donahue, a godless Woolworth's heir and flamboyant gay man.
May 22, 2018
This is an odd book. From the title one would think it's about the Duchess of Windsor, but in fact it is more about her tyrannical lawyer and custodian, in the Duchess' later years, Maitre Blum. It is also more about the Duke of Windsor, and Blum's associate and underling, Michael Bloch.
And none of the information presented is verifiable. It appears Ms Blackwood used only about 7 sources, and there are about 15 footnotes, in total.
Most of the book, in fact, is rhetorical questions, and conjecture on the author's part. As I recall she used "presumably" quite a lot.
However, it did give me a lot of insight into the royal family during the Duchess' lifetime, and the family comes across as very venal, insular, isolated from life outside their various domiciles, living in a false reality. In short, not very nice people.
The actual prose is not bad, and the syntax acceptable.
*Spoiler Alert* In the end, I'm left with a bunch of questions, the most pressing of which is: at her death, was the duchess really black, and the size of a baby? Now, THAT would be cool.
And none of the information presented is verifiable. It appears Ms Blackwood used only about 7 sources, and there are about 15 footnotes, in total.
Most of the book, in fact, is rhetorical questions, and conjecture on the author's part. As I recall she used "presumably" quite a lot.
However, it did give me a lot of insight into the royal family during the Duchess' lifetime, and the family comes across as very venal, insular, isolated from life outside their various domiciles, living in a false reality. In short, not very nice people.
The actual prose is not bad, and the syntax acceptable.
*Spoiler Alert* In the end, I'm left with a bunch of questions, the most pressing of which is: at her death, was the duchess really black, and the size of a baby? Now, THAT would be cool.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 106 reviews