The Windsor Conspiracy: A Novel of the Crown, a Conspiracy, and the Duchess of Windsor
The Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson are in exile at a friend’s French château with wedding plans underway. As Simpson listens to the BBC broadcast of the 1937 coronation of England’s King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, she is embittered over the abdication which destroyed her dreams of becoming queen. Amelia Montague, Wallis’s cousin recently hired as her personal secretary, keeps Wallis’s frenzied life running smoothly. Through Amelia’s eyes, we learn of her tumultuous life with the Windsors and their Nazi associations. A secondary, much less engaging storyline is Amelia’s story – the scandal she has escaped in the United States around her husband and his death. This new position is an attempt to pull herself out of the resulting debt and rebuild her life.
Blalock gives us a fascinating, page-turning story of the exiled Windsors in France and the Bahamas. Wallis is furious that King George refuses to bestow her the honorific Her Royal Highness but still insists she is addressed as such. She obsessively presses the duke to plead her case with the king. Among the Windsors’ circle is the German foreign minister, Herr von Ribbentrop, and many other Nazi sympathizers. In their admiration of Hitler, they plan a trip to Germany which the Crown makes every effort to prevent, then disassociate from. The press is not kind to the couple as their admiration and high regard of Hitler is on display.
The dynamics of the Windsors’ relationship and their interactions with others are riveting. They are a very self-involved couple and inconsiderate of all others – whether escaping an occupied Paris or acting in the role of Governor-General of the Bahamas. Even their extensive personal possessions are of more importance – a priority over the safety of themselves and their staff. You can’t look away from this train-wreck of a couple as you read this compulsive and astonishing story.
