Reviews for Royal feud

The average rating for Royal feud based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-04-12 00:00:00 John Howell Jr It's time to play the Royal Feud! Queen Mum and the Duchess of Windsor...c'mon down! In 1936, Edward VIII gave up his throne for Wallis Simpson, a twice-divorced American. At the time, it was a scandalous (well, still is) way to abdicate responsibility given that he was raised to be a King. It all turned out all right for the free world. But let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. He was born as David, eldest son of the stern George V, who must have looked at his sons and thrown up his hands in dismay. David loved the good life and bloomed during the freewheeling 1920s. His younger brothers all looked up to him, perhaps in relief that he would have to shoulder the burden of kingship. But David just never could get into the whole swing of...what's that word..."responsibility". Yes, that's the word. Think George IV. When the old King died in January of 1936, David became Edward VIII. Unfortunately, it was not a good year for a weak-willed Windsor to come to power given the whole world situation at the time. Worse, he was infatuated with an American divorcee named Wallis Simpson. A striving, ambitious me-first fortune hunter, Simpson already had the King wrapped around her finger. She expected to be a Queen. Thankfully, the British people had a bit more common sense than their besotted 'leader'. The combination of angry popular opinion and a stubborn government forced Edward VIII into abdication. THANK YOU, GREAT BRITAIN. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU (the Americans would have put her picture on a postage stamp). The new King (George VI), always dutiful toward his older brother, made Edward the Duke of Windsor and tried, in vain, to push him out-of-sight. Now we get to the gist of this book. Although the whole ex-King thing is mighty interesting (what does one do with an ex-King), the story here is of the battle between the hungry Wallis and the don't-even-go-there resolve of the new Queen. Unlike the unlikable Duchess of Windsor, Queen Bess (that was always my name for her) had Scottish nerves of steel and an obsession with doing one's duty. Neither she nor her shy husband ever expected to be rulers of a country, a country about to enter a terrifying war. Meanwhile, the Windsors hung out with Hitler. Fast forward to WWII, the Brits with their backs to the wall, and the King and Queen staying put amidst the bombs and destruction. While the Windsors cavorted in the Bahamas (sent there because Churchill knew of the ex-King's pro-Nazi sympathies), the war played out, albeit to the detriment of George VI, who aged rapidly as the stress of ruling his beleaguered country and being the King who had to see the break-up of the once-great empire became too much. Queen Bess never forgave the Duke of Windsor and his haughty wife. Especially the Duchess. "The woman who killed my husband." The Queen Mum went on to instill a sense of duty in her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II. The work you do is the rent you pay for the room you occupy on earth. The royal family did their best to keep the Windsors at bay, upset that they were living a life of carefree celebrity while the British people were still on rations during the 1950s. The Windsors received tax-free housing from the French government and never stopped complaining about their lot in life. As the Duchess of Windsor aged, she had more and more plastic surgery to ward off the reaper (with her angular looks, she could have been a medieval playing card). The Duchess of Windsor aged rapidly anyway and ended her days in an Alzheimer's fog. Alone. Sometimes Karma does its job. The Queen Mum continued to work and lived until the age of 101. I call that success. So, that's the story. As one might tell, I am a bit biased here. As a child in Australia, I remember the hatred toward the Duke because of unkind remarks about Aussies (who fought and died for his good life). He was already dead, but I just didn't like him or his Yankee wife. In this book, the author doesn't take sides right away. Instead he drives the reader crazy with notes and a constant back-and-forth between the two leading ladies. Also, it was sometimes hard to figure out which Elizabeth he was referring to in certain passages. Anyway, after about 1/3 of the way through, the story gets really going and I was hooked. But, it took too long to get there. Still, it's a good read for anyone wanting to learn about the Windsors and the not always heralded Queen Mum. This is War of the Roses, with the Duchess as the red rose of Lancaster and the Queen as the white rose of York. Book Season = Year Round (pull up the drawbridge)

Review # 2 was written on 2010-03-07 00:00:00 Alice Pudda RE: Royal Feud: The Dark Side of the Love Story of the Century Royal Feud: The Dark Side of the Love Story of the Century (1985) by Michael Thornton Added 3/7/10 - I read this book in March 2010. ------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION: "Story of the feud between The Queen Mother, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon and Wallis Simpson, American, who became Duchess of Windsor when King Edward VIII, in 1936, abdicated the throne to marry her. This story dramatizes the course of this feud and explains its origins. It also tells how, in old age, a peace was finally made between them." FROM: ------------------------------------- I am awed by the amount of research which went into this book about the break between the British Royal family and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor after Edward VIII's abdication. The footnotes abound (leading me on to other books I'd like to read). It's a fascinating story detailing, among other things, the animosity between Wallis Windsor and George VI's wife, Queen Elizabeth. The Duke never gave up in his attempts to persuade his brother, the king, to allow Wallis to use the title HRH (Her Royal Highness). Also, from page 226: "The King's decision not to give the Windsors any further official work may have resulted from the documentary evidence of the Duke's 'indiscretions' during the war." (This refers to the Duke's interactions with Hitler before and during WWII. On page 226, it says: "Hitler had not yet abandoned his plans for the restoration of Edward to the throne from which he had abdicated.") PS-I've been lucky enough to find a YouTube video in which both the Duke and the Duchess are speaking. They tell about the beginning of their relationship and how they met. See the video here: ====> PPS-I'm trying to see both sides of the story, as to whether the British Crown did right or wrong in their ostracism of the abdicated king and his wife, Wallis Windsor. ==================================== ADDENDUM - 4/2/13: QUOTES FROM MY HANDWRITTEN NOTES: p.324 - "If age had caught up with Wallace, it had not robbed her of style." p.334 - "The Prince was dead. The royal fairy tale was over... The leading lady was left on stage surrounded by her props and all the tinsel of make-believe." p.335 - "Between the Duchess of Windsor and her sister-in-law, the Queen Mother, there remained a strange and touching epilogue to be played out." p.360 - (re the Queen Mother) "... making any house she lives in a unique haven of cozinesss and character... (words of Prince Phillip in book's preface (?)) p.360 - (re the Queen Mother) "... whose greatest gift is to enhance life for others through her own effervescent enthusiasm for life." ======================================= SEE RELATED ARTICLE AT: (The article, by Michael Thornton, is entitled: "The Queen Mother? That spiteful old soak dedicated herself to making our lives hell")