'The choice before ex-kings,' Herbert Morrison remarked in 1937 on the occasion of the Windsors' characteristically ill-advised visit to Nazi Germany, 'is either to fade out of the public eye or be a nuisance.' It has generally been assumed that the Duke came in the second of these categories and, since it is even easier to hit a man when he is dead than when he is down, tilting at Windsor has recently become a popular sport. Some of the jousting has been in dubious taste, with lances forged in malice, aimed in hatred and wielded in spite. But others, more interested in history than in hearsay, have landed some shrewd blows on their target. Chief among these Windsor-wallopers has been Frances Donaldson, whose much-acclaimed biography undermined many of the legends which lingered from his time as Prince of Wales, substantiated most of the criticisms levelled against him as King Edward VIII, and painted a pathetic picture of his later years as Duke of Windsor, the 'weary, wayward, wandering ghost', shuffling with rootless opulence from resort to resort, getting 'more tanned and more tired'.

LRB 2 December 1982 | PDF Download