About this item
On December 10, 1936, King Edward VIII brought a great international drama to a close when he abdicated, renouncing the throne of the United Kingdom for himself and his heirs. The reason he gave when addressing his subjects was that he could not fulfill his duties without the woman he loved -- the notorious American divorcee Wallis Simpson -- by his side. His actions scandalized the establishment, who were desperate to avoid an international embarrassment at a time when war seemed imminent. That the King was rumored to have Nazi sympathies only strengthened their determination that he should be forced off the throne, by any means necessary.Alexander Larman's The Crown in Crisis will treat readers to a new, thrilling view of this legendary story. Informed by revelatory archival material never-before-seen, as well as by interviews with many of Edward's and Wallis's close friends, Larman creates an hour-by-hour, day-by-day suspenseful narrative that brings readers up to the point where the microphone is turned on and the king speaks to his subjects.
About the Author
Alexander Larman is an author, historian and journalist. After reading English at Oxford, from where he graduated with a First, he ghost-wrote and edited various memoirs and biographies, including the late artist and flneur Sebastian Horsley's . His involvement with the book led Horsley to say 'there is no man in London more capable of genius - or a flop - than Alexander Larman'. He began his own writing career with (Head of Zeus, 2014) , a biography of the 17th century poet and libertine Lord Rochester, and followed this with (Head of Zeus, 2016) a social history of the year 1666, and (Head of Zeus, 2016) , an 'anti-biography' of the poet Lord Byron and the significant women in his life. His next book, (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2020) was a revisionist history of the abdication saga. It was selected by the and as one of their best books of the year and led to significant international media coverage of the new revelations about the event. As a journalist, Larman regularly contributes to titles including and , for which he serves as literary editor. He lives in Oxford with his wife and daughter.
