The Duchess: From the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Governess

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This book allowed me entry into the thoughts of Wallis and put a new slant on history if David ever really wanted to be King or if Wallis his perfect reason not to do so. Those who enjoy biographical fiction and books relating to British royalty, will find a great deal to savor in this new novel of The Duchess of Windsor. I only have basic knowledge of Consuelo Vanderbilt and was eager to learn more about one of America’s icons. The evidence includes handwritten notes from Elizabethan antiquary John Stow indicating that the poem was written at John of Gaunt's request.

Although Mrs Simpson had been held up as a ‘scarlet woman’ who tempted Britain’s king away from the throne, Holden takes a new stance, portraying her as an innocent, slightly naive woman who was out of her depth in aristocratic society. By the end of the book she wants to embrace her simple life and shun the attention she had so desperately wanted.He owned a historic castle, he looked manly in a kilt, and he was as much a titled Scotsman as Bonnie Prince Charlie himself.

He reflects on the dream and decides that his dream is so wonderful that it should be set into rhyme. The sole heiress to her father's bread-flour fortune, she has grown up in a Newport mansion modelled on the Palace of Versailles, and her coming-out ball boasts 800 guests, fountains of champagne, and the release of a cageful of gold-sprayed hummingbirds at midnight. Not only were dates and events mentioned that made no sense but the final craziness was when Angelique heard that her brother Tristan, now the Duke, had blown through all their father's money and was going to sell the ENTAILED property. I felt like a fly on the wall watching their attachment play out and and put emphasis on Wallis as a real person rather than a thing that was detested and blamed. Wallis longs for parties, the theatre, and glamorous, interesting friends, but the British have social codes that can’t be cracked and an impenetrable class system, and to them, she is just a middle-aged foreigner without looks, money or connections.Set against the gilded backdrop of the aristocratic social scene in pre-war London – a place of wealth, wild parties, dining on foie gras, and drinking Pol Roger champagne at the Ritz – Holden’s enthralling story weaves between the early Thirties and the funeral of Edward, Duke of Windsor, in 1972 to bring this history-changing chapter of British royal history to vivid life. Angelique takes an unfamiliar and unimaginable path in setting up what becomes a highly successful business.