Power and Glory

January 1, 2024
The final installment of Larman's royal trilogy. The author concludes with more shocks to the Windsor dynasty: the death of George VI and the succession of Elizabeth II. Once again, the villain is the former king--Edward VIII, who became the Duke of Windsor after his abdication--whose postwar machinations sent his brother into an early grave. Edward's pertinacity in trying to secure a sinecure from the British government, bankroll his lavish expat lifestyle, and assure the use of the title HRH for Wallis Simpson, his duchess, continued to roil the British powers, specifically a Labour Party that had been voted in, booting out George VI's favored Winston Churchill. The country was demoralized and still rationing when the young Elizabeth came of age and injected much-needed spirit and energy into the sclerotic dynasty, lifting the gloomy national mood. At the same time, she and her Greek-born prince, Philip Mountbatten, were courting, and rumors abounded. As usual, Larman offers many delicious behind-the-scenes details to this fairly well-known story, mining copious correspondence--such as from the gossipy then queen (aka the Queen Mother), who blamed the abdication crisis for her husband's failing health. With the king's lung cancer advancing, one of Edward's former courtiers at the palace even suggested that now was the time for him to finagle his way into being appointed regent for the next king. It is Larman's depth of research into--and evident dislike for--the self-serving Edward that makes the narrative crackle, and the author is particularly critical of his use of a ghostwriter to craft his venal memoirs, essentially whitewashing the true story of his treachery. Among other relevant topics, Larman writes movingly about Churchill's growing admiration for the new queen, and the five-page dramatis personae is helpful for keeping the characters straight. A fitting conclusion to a memorable history.

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February 1, 2024
There's been waxing interest in Great Britain's royal family in the U.S., where viewers followed the funeral for Queen Elizabeth II, the coronation of King Charles III, and Netflix's fictionalized The Crown with fervor. This fascination heralds an eager audience for the final volume of Larman's (The Windsors at War, 2023) trilogy on the monarchical history since Edward VIII's 1936 abdication. Larman now addresses Britain's postwar era, guiding readers through Churchill's ouster by the Labor Party, Princess Elizabeth's adolescence, George VI's declining health, and the spectacle of Elizabeth II's coronation. But underpinning all this is the continuing, often malevolent presence of the rejected king and his spouse, who continued to dog the Windsors till his death in 1972. Larman is unsparing in his judgment, casting the Duke of Windsor's behavior as no less than betrayal of his realm. Larman brings new life into his account of the rise of Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten as consort to the young princess and gives much credit to courtiers and politicians in shaping the public personas of each royal. Larman makes all this history accessible even to those unfamiliar with palace protocols and hierarchies, cementing this as a must-read for royal watchers and Anglophiles of all sorts.

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February 5, 2024
Historian Larman (The Windsors at War) brings his trilogy on the WWII-era royal family to a close with a scrupulous and immersive double portrait of the abdicated King Edward VIII (1894–1972) in exile and his niece Elizabeth II (1927–2023) as a young princess through her 1953 coronation. Larman begins in 1945, when, “dogged by endless controversy” (for his friendships with Nazi sympathizers among other transgressions), Edward “ostentatiously” abandoned his governorship of the Bahamas for a “bored and underemployed” stayover at the Waldorf Towers in New York City. His status as royal pariah in the wake of his marriage to American divorcée Wallis Simpson was newly compounded by the discovery of the Marburg Files, which revealed the extent of his collusion with the Germans during the war. Retreating to a chateau on the French Riviera, Edward and Wallis lost their annual income from the Crown upon the death of his brother, King George VI, and were excluded from Elizabeth’s wedding to Prince Philip as well as her coronation. The romance between Elizabeth and Philip, meanwhile, sparked public support in the grim aftermath of war. Drawing from diaries and memoirs of the royals and their retinue, Larman produces an elegant study of the interplay between the personal and the political. Royal watchers will be satisfied with this fitting final installment.

February 1, 2024

Larman completes his three-book consideration of Queen Elizabeth II's ascension (after The Windsors at War and The Crown in Crisis) with a study of how the monarchy survived, and how Elizabeth thrived, in the wake of World War II, forging a new global image and power base for royalty. Prepub Alert.

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