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Traitor King

The Scandalous Exile of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor: AS FEATURED ON CHANNEL 4 TV DOCUMENTARY

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Traitor King

By: Andrew Lownie
Narrated by: Andrew Lownie
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FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF ENTITLED, 'THE MOST DEVASTATING ROYAL BIOGRAPHY EVER WRITTEN', DAILY MAIL
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

A Daily Mail Royal Book of the Year, 2021

'Darkly compelling...hundreds of eye-popping details...Gripping ... damning portrait of the Windsors' Daily Mail 'Book of the Week'

'Briskly written and compulsively readable...' - A.N. Wilson, TLS

'Meticulously researched' - Spectator

'Entertaining... convincing... timely. Urgent reading for royals' - Evening Standard


December 1936. The King of England, Edward VIII, has given up his Crown, foregoing his duty for the love of Wallis Simpson, an American divorcée. Their courtship has been dogged by controversy and scandal, but with Edward's abdication, they can live happily ever after. But do they?

In Traitor King, bestselling historian Andrew Lownie draws on hitherto unexplored archives to uncover the dramatic world of the Windsors post-abdication. Lownie reveals a couple obsessed with their status, financially exploiting their position and manipulating the media. Filled with treachery and betrayal, this is a story of an exiled Royal and the Nazi attempts to recruit him to their cause. And of why the Royal family never forgave the Duke for choosing love over duty. Europe Great Britain Military Politics & Activism Royalty
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Critic reviews

Lownie expertly captures the extravagance (they never travelled with fewer than 73 pieces of luggage), the sense of entitlement, the snobbery, the vanity, the selfpity, the bone-idle laziness, the fundamental uselessness of their lives as outcasts. 'I never saw a man so bored,' said one acquaintance. Should this be required reading in a certain household in Montecito, California?
Meticulously researched
Briskly written and compulsively readable...Does Andrew Lownie persuade me that it is worth telling the story again, and that he has made out the case for his unforgiving title? The answer is an unambiguous yes. (A.N. Wilson)
Entertaining... convincing... timely. Urgent reading for royals
Darkly compelling...hundreds of eye-popping details...Gripping though it is, this is an unrelentingly damning portrait of the Windsors
Compelling... a devastating portrait of the duke and duchess... a timely point of comparison when set against the ongoing trials and tribulations of the House of Windsor
Lownie reveals Edward not as a dupe of the Nazis, but an active and culpable collaborator...The list of individuals interviewed and archives consulted is formidable. The more impressive then, that this is a wonderfully readable and succinct story
Thoroughly researched and compelling narrative of one of the most controversial periods in royal history. (Andrew Morton)
Andrew Lownie has a remarkable ability to fashion a compelling narrative from raw archive text and personal reminiscence. His Traitor King (Blink, £25), about the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and their questionable cohorts, is every bit as absorbing as his earlier history of the Mountbattens. (Andrew Lycett, Spectator Books of the Year)
'definitively answering some of the enduring mysteries ...Lownie fearlessly yet fairly provides the answers. Lownie appears to have red every book ever written about the Windsors and drilled deep into unpublished archives as well...Lownie has dug into the couple's complex love lives just as deeply...The full ghastly truth about them has remained obscure until now, partly thanks to a judicious cover-up by the British Establishment...' (History Today)
Meticulously researched and with so much new material on one of the most controversial Royals of the 20th century. Lownie reveals shocking new aspects to the life of Edward, Duke of Windsor, and firmly placed the Duke as a traitor to his country. (Aspects of History)
this "explosive new royal biography" (front-cover blurb) by the highly regarded author of books about Guy Burgess and the Mountbattens,.. a biographer as serious and scholarly as Andrew Lownie ...Lownie gives heft to George Orwell's famous observation that the England of that time was a family, but one "with the wrong members in control"
"Andrew Lownie's compelling volume... an unflattering portrait of this entitled couple."
All stars
Most relevant
A must read for anyone interested in Royal or WW2 history.
There have been many claims and reports about Edward VIII & Wallis Simpson’s Nazi links and this book clarifies much of the whole affair citing as much evidence as possible to back up the claims.
As in his book about the Mountbattens, Andrew Lownie manages to get that bit more information than anyone else I know of has & revealed the story in greater clarity.
It’s still astonishing and shocking to this day that the public are not more outraged by what happened. Perhaps it’s because details have been drip fed over the years?
It does explain many things such as why the Germans paused when they could have decimated the British army at Dunkirk, why such a fuss was made of the link between Wallis and Edward & why he was treated as an outcast after abdication. I now believe the divorcee issue was not the real reason for the abdication but the fact he was a clear security risk to the UK.
I eagerly await Andrew’s next book whatever that may be.

Utterly explosive & easily the best read on the subject

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An excellently listened to story of a man who would have given this country to Germany to fulfil his own arrogant belief that he knew better than anyone else what was good for us citizens, and ignoring the Nazi's murderous journey through Europe led by another equally treacherous person,Adolf Hitler, albeit Hitler was a much more clear individual than the Duke of Windsor.

How on earth did the politicians allow him to be given money and position when they knew he collaborated with the Nazi ' is beyond belief. His passing along with That Woman was a long overdue affair. A quicker way would have been a quick assassination of them both, but particularly him.

The Treacherous King

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Fantastic details into what happened after the abdication and how greed, obsession, jealousy and hate shaped their lives

Brilliant Insight

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A very interesting book. So much information. Thoroughly recommend. Well written & narrated. I’m now listening to the story of the Mountbattens.

Couldn’t stop listening, recommended!

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Listened to this in two days and promptly bought a physical copy for my Mum. It’s brilliantly paced, researched and written and Andrew does a fantastic job of telling the tale of this rather strange and malignant man, his wife and their appalling behaviour before, during and indeed after WW2.

It’s shocking in a number of ways and leaves one feeling that it was rather lucky that Edward fell in love with Wallis Simpson and abdicated.

Must Read - Riveting, Shocking and Fascinating

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