ROYAL The duke of duplicity

SARAH GRISTWOOD on a new profile of Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson that casts them in a distinctly unflattering light

- SARAH GRISTWOOD

The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson, can be hard to see clearly. Looming over their controversial figures are clouds of confusion: were they fools for love or feeble faces of the British monarchy? Those clouds only grow more obscure every time a new royal couple seems to be juggling the conflicting demands of love and duty.

The official position - that, by stepping away from the demands of his nation, the duke set himself beyond the pale - sowed the seeds of its own revision, positioning this particular duke and duchess as victims of a repressive monarchical establishment. Now Andrew Lownie sets out to revise the revisionists, and he does so convincingly.