The Duchess and Duke of Windsor, photographed by Cecil Beaton in 1938—a year after they were married, and two years after the former King Edward VIII gave up the throne.

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Ever since Edward VIII abdicated the British throne to marry the American divorcée Wallis Simpson, there has been speculation about their relationship. A new book attempts to set the record straight

By Andrew Lownie

The writer Craig Brown once noted of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor that “books have been written proving conclusively that they were a good thing and that they were a bad thing; that she loved him but he didn’t love her; that he loved her but she didn’t love him; that they loved one another and that they both hated one another.”

The books—both fiction and nonfiction, in addition to documentaries, musicals, and films—continue to appear 36 years after her death and 50 years after his and continue to adopt very different points of view toward the couple. Some still argue that this was one of the great love affairs of the 20th century, others that Wallis Simpson, who had been the future King Edward VIII’s mistress since 1934, felt trapped in a marriage that she had never wanted.