Abdication

Description

From critically acclaimed historian Juliet Nicolson, a novel of a King and country torn between private desire and public duty on the eve of the Second World War 'Abdication beautifully evokes the troubled thirties, with its high-stakes politics, easy money and social tensions ... This is a wonderful novel' Amanda Foreman 'Superb ... a delightful story of a friendship forged by the drama of the Abdication and the approaching war' The Times _________________________ After the recent death of George V, England has a new king, Edward VIII. But for all the confident pomp and ceremony of the accession, it is a turbulent time. When nineteen-year-old May Thomas arrives in Liverpool, her first job as secretary and chauffeuse to Sir Philip Blunt introduces her to the upper echelons of British society - and to Julian, a young man of conscience whom, despite all barriers of class, she cannot help but fall for. But hidden truths, unspoken sympathies and covert complicities are everywhere, and the threat of another world war becomes increasingly inevitable...

Juliet Nicolson is the author of The Perfect Summer: Dancing Into Shadow in 1911 and The Great Silence: 1918-1920 Living in the Shadow of the Great War. She has two daughters and lives with her husband in Sussex.

Abdication beautifully evokes the troubled thirties, with its high-stakes politics, easy money and social tensions. Juliet Nicolson is an outstanding historian who brings the full panoply of her talent and research to the task of recreating the abdication crisis and its effect on Britain. This is a wonderful novel * Amanda Foreman * Superb ... a delightful story of a friendship forged by the drama of the Abdication and the approaching war; ideal for the intelligent deckchair * Kate Saunders, The Times * Juliet Nicolson's busy novel brings a turbulent period to vivid life ... the cast of kings and courtiers, American socialites and upper-class fascists grips throughout * Max Davidson, Mail on Sunday * Exhilaratingly rich in period details ... Nicolson brings Edward and Wallis's relationship to vivid life, artfully conveying Edward's infatuation and Wallis's brittle social-butterfly charm * Leyla Sanai, Independent * With her keen eye for historical detail and intimate knowledge of England's social mores, Juliet Nicolson weaves a juicy and evocative tale of lives caught in the midst of one of Britain's great modern dramas, the abdication of King Edward VIII * Tina Brown * A vivid reimagining ... a thoroughly absorbing novel. Juliet Nicolson combines a historian's deep knowledge and eye for telling detail with a keen sense of drama, a dash of romance, and an understanding of the complex motivations of human nature * Sally Bedell Smith * Anyone interested in the 1930's will revel in this richly detailed slant on the abdication crisis * Daisy Goodwin * This debut novel brings the skills of a gifted social historian to bear on familiar material, and so makes it strange again * Independent * Perceptive. Clearly Nicolson has done her research * Evening Standard * Elegantly poignant ... Nicolson has an eye for prescient anecdotes * Ruth Scurr, The Times on The Perfect Summer: Dancing Into Shadow in 1911 * Sweeps across voices and classes to assemble a mosaic of sunlit impressions * Boyd Tonkin, Independent * An accomplished and engaging piece of social history * Daily Telegraph * This is a peach of a book. It is full of good things, elegant and often funny. A cleverly crafted story of the hot, frenetic summer of 1911 which works because of the sparkling writing * Jane Ridley, Literary Review *