Untitled: The Real Wallis Simpson by Anna Pasternak

Who was the real Wallis Simpson?

On the 11th December 1936 Edward VIII’s abdication plunged the British monarchy and its government into crisis. Determined to marry Wallis Simpson, the King didn’t pause to consider for a moment that she, not him, would be blamed for his history altering decision.

Hated by the male-run establishment and the royal family for disgracing the throne, Wallis has been cemented in history and in the publics’ consciousness as the destroyer of the British Monarchy. But in truth she was a warm, witty, engaging woman, adored by her friends, as real, self-conscious and insecure as any of us, and painfully aware of her fateful role in history.

In Untitled, Anna Pasternak looks deep into the life and legacy of one of the most misjudged women in British royal history, seeking to understand an unusual and complex woman, and the untenable situation she became embroiled in.

Anna Pasternak is a writer and member of the Pasternak family: her great-grandfather was Leonid, the impressionist painter and her great-uncle was Boris, the Nobel prize winning novelist. She was educated at Christ Church, Oxford and is the author of a number of books, including the best-selling Princess in Love and most recently Lara, the critically acclaimed biography of Boris Pasternak’s lover and muse, Olga Ivinskaya.