The Duchess of Windsor Revisited

A topic both fascinating and polarizing, the story of the Duchess of Windsor, Wallis Simpson, is in the limelight once again. Join acclaimed Royal biographer Hugo Vickers for a relaunch of Behind Closed Doors, the true story of the Duchess of Windsor. Ahead of the film due out later this year starring Isabella Rossellini and Joan Collins, this illuminating and moving portrait of the Duchess brings a new perspective, particularly in her later years after the Duke’s death. Using previously unpublished papers and other personal testaments, Vickers paints a resonant portrait of a complex and tragic icon and reveals the truth behind her final years.

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About the Book

An illuminating and moving portrait of Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor, in her later years after the Duke’s death. The true story behind the film The Duchess and I, starring Isabella Rossellini and Joan Collins. Acclaimed biographer Hugo Vickers holds an encyclopedic knowledge of the Royal Family, but his fascination with the Duchess of Windsor runs deeper, going back to his own youth. Long misunderstood, the Duchess of Windsor and her story have both fascinated and polarized. While there have been many books about the doomed couple, Behind Closed Doors brings a new perspective to Wallis, specifically by focusing on the later years of exile. While Vickers has his own theories about the Abdication itself—and he makes it very clear that Wallis did not lure the King from the throne—the drama of this narrative comes from the criminal exploitation of an old, sick woman after the death of her husband. Readers will be shocked by the ruthless French lawyer known as Suzanne Blum and come to understand how the Duchess’s precarious position, once she was widowed, only added to her plight. Her once-glamorous life quickly spiralled into one of desperation and fear.

About the Author

Hugo Vickers is well known as a biographer, lecturer, and broadcaster, and is an acknowledged expert on the Royal Family. His first book was about Gladys Deacon, Duchess of Marlborough (1881-1977), in whom he became interested when he was 16 years old. When he was 23, he found the Duchess in the psycho-geriatric ward of a mental hospital and talked to her for two years until her death at the age of 96. He researched in Europe and America and published Gladys, Duchess of Marlborough in 1979. Because there was considerably more material available 40 years on, he revised this book for a new edition, published in 2020, as The Sphinx (and paperback in 2021). It received positive reviews. Hugo is called upon to comment on important state occasions and at times when the Royal Family is in the news. He has covered events from the first wedding of the Prince of Wales, many royal weddings, and the funerals of Diana, the Queen Mother, Prince Philip, the State Funeral and Committal of The Queen, and the Coronation of Charles III. The Financial Times has described him as: ‘the most knowledgeable royal biographer on the planet.’ When he spent an hour with Jacqueline Onassis in her office at Doubleday in 1990, she said to him: ‘You look like a poet, but your head must be full of information.’ Hugo has written many biographies of 20th century figures, including Cecil Beaton, Vivien Leigh, the Duchess of Windsor, Princess Andrew of Greece, and the Queen Mother. His book, The Quest for Queen Mary, sold 40,000 copies in various forms. He attacked the sixty episodes of the Netflix series The Crown – in his book, The Crown Dissected, available as an e-book. In May 2021, he published Malice in Wonderland, with extracts from his own diaries about researching the life of Cecil Beaton. A year later, he published a book with HRH The Duke of Kent, entitled A Royal Life. In 2023, he updated his 2013 book, Coronation, and has lectured about it in London, New York, Washington, Boston, San Francisco, and Sonoma. That year, he gave 44 lectures, with four trips to the USA. Hugo published his first novel, Pining in Paradise, a study of the super-rich on holiday at the Cipriani Hotel in Venice in 2024. Later that year, he published his biography of Clarissa, Countess of Avon (widow of Anthony Eden). When not writing, Hugo travels through the Commonwealth and Overseas Territories, establishing Commonwealth Walkways, and as such has visited many countries from Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, to the Cook Islands, the Falklands, and, as he puts it, was once obliged to spend seven weeks touring the Caribbean. In July 2022, Prince Edward unveiled the Platinum Jubilee Walkway in Birmingham. Queen Elizabeth II visited the Walkways eight times when he was Chairman. Hugo is a Deputy Lieutenant for the Royal County of Berkshire and has been involved with the College of St George since February 1966. He is Captain of the Lay Stewards of St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, having served as a Lay Steward since 1970. In 2019, he was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. Hugo has lectured in the UK, the USA, Australia, France, Italy, Denmark and the Bahamas – in the King’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace, at Windsor Castle, in Marlborough House, Kensington Palace, St James’s Palace, Spencer House, Blenheim Palace, and the British Embassy in Paris – as well as on board transatlantic liners and many a village hall. He appeared frequently on Larry King Live between 1997 and 2005, and had his Andy Warhol moment of fame when he appeared with Stephen Colbert in his programme, My Fair Colbert, about the 2011 royal wedding. He lives in London and Wiltshire and has three grown-up children. When possible, he disappears to a tree house in Dominica.