About this item
New York Times bestselling author Paul French examines a controversial and revealing period in the early life of the legendary Wallis, Duchess of Windsor-her one year in China.Before she was the Duchess of Windsor, Bessie Wallis Warfield was Mrs. Wallis Spencer, wife of Earl "Win" Spencer, a US Navy aviator. From humble beginnings in Baltimore, she rose to marry a man who gave up his throne for her. But what made Wallis Spencer, Navy Wife, the woman who could become the Duchess of Windsor? The answers lie in her one-year sojourn in China.. In her memoirs, Wallis described her time in China as her "Lotus Year," referring to Homer's Lotus Eaters, a group living in a state of dreamy forgetfulness, never to return home. Though faced with challenges, Wallis came to appreciate traditional Chinese aesthetics.
About the Author
Born in London and educated there and in Glasgow, Paul French lived and worked in Shanghai for many years before returning to London in 2013. He is a widely published analyst and commentator on China and North Korea having written a number of books including a history of foreign correspondents in China and a biography of the legendary Shanghai adman, journalist and adventurer Carl Crow.His literary non-fiction book, Midnight in Peking, was an international success becoming a New York Times Bestseller, BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week and has been optioned for television by Kudos Film and Television in the UK. Midnight in Peking was a 2012 Choice Awards finalist and also won both the 2013 Edgar Best Fact Crime book award by the Mystery Writers' of America and the Crime Writers' Association (UK) non-fiction Dagger award. The judges praised 'the way he brilliantly evoked the uneasy atmosphere of China's capital 80 years ago.'
