Abdication A Novel - By Juliet Nicolson Page 0,141
their strength.
“Would you like a chip? They’re still quite hot,” the man whispered, taking off his cap and untying his stripey scarf. Still May did not look round but the voice was as familiar to her as if it had been the voice of her own mother. It was the same voice that whispered to her in her dreams and was the first sound that she tried to summon to her mind in the morning.
“In the hands of King Albert we may rest assured that the dignity of the Crown, so well established by his beloved father King George V, is in safe keeping,” the commentator was saying. “To King Albert and Queen Elizabeth we wish long life, happiness and courage in the years to come,” the voice concluded. May forced herself to eat the chip, surprised to discover that it tasted delicious.
“Thank you, darling,” she murmured as Julian reached across the seat for her hand. Interlacing her fingers with his own, he took off his glasses and bent to kiss her, lighting up the cinema with his head of white-blond hair.
Acknowledgements
I am most grateful for the information provided by Anne Sander at the Archives at Balliol College Oxford, Luke McKernan at the British Library Newsreel, Mike Lamden at National Express Coaches and the ever-helpful staff at the London Library. I have consulted dozens of biographies, histories, essays, novels, newspapers, magazines, diaries, personal letters both published and private, and several photographic collections during the research for this book. Among the publications I found especially valuable were the Duke of Windsor’s own memoirs, A King’s Story; Wallis Simpson’s autobiography The Heart Has Its Reasons and Wallis and Edward, The Intimate Correspondence 1931–37 of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, edited by Michael Bloch; Queen Mary by James Pope-Hennessy; Edward VIII by Philip Ziegler; Blackshirts-on-Sea by J. A. Booker; Journey Through a Small Planet by Emanuel Litvinoff; The Age of Illusion by Ronald Blythe; The Long Weekend by Robert Graves and Alan Hodge; Chicken Soup with Barley by Arnold Wesker. I would like to single out one other book that I cannot recommend highly enough for its illumination of the decade, Juliet Gardiner’s The Thirties: An Intimate History.
First novels are intimidating undertakings at every stage of the process and from conception to birth I have been guided and encouraged by a number of amazing people. I would particularly like to thank Patricia Anker, Kitty and Michael Ann, Frankie Baldwin, William Boyd, Kevin Brownlow, Paul Calkin, Debo Devonshire, Sophie Ford, Antonia Fraser, Arthur Fyne, Hugh Harris, Dr. Jonathan Hunt, Diana Kelly, The Hon. Mrs. Charles Kitchener, Katie Law, Pam Leigh, Dr. Kate Murphy, Adam Nicolson, Molly Nicolson, Rebecca Nicolson, Rosie Nicolson, Vanessa Nicolson, Cate Olson, David O’Rorke, Tim O’Rorke, Sarah Raven, Nash Robbins, Julian Smith, Tom Stoppard, Joanna Trollope, Hugo Vickers, and Henry and Rachel Wyndham. I am indebted to Hilary and Galen Weston for their invitation to Fort Belvedere and for the unprecedented and invaluable sense of place the visit gave me.
My research has been backed up by the unflagging energy, imagination, and intelligence of Clementine Macmillan-Scott.
Ed Victor has radiated confidence and encouragement in the book from the beginning. He is the best. And I am as grateful as ever to his colleagues Charlie Campbell, Maggie Phillips, Morag O’Brien and Linda Vann. My forensically intuitive editor Michael Fishwick has taken unprecedented trouble over the book and I am also blessed at Bloomsbury with the enthusiasm, professionalism and flair of Alexandra Pringle, Katie Bond, Oliver Holden-Rea, David Mann, Anna Simpson and Alexa von Hirschberg.
My agent in America, William Clark, has worked harder on my behalf than I deserve. At Atria Books I would like to thank my editor Sarah Branham for her unflagging passion and perceptiveness and Judith Curr for her belief in me as a writer.
I could not have imagined life in the Britain of 1936 without the memories of Jeremy Hutchinson who was a young man on the cusp of adulthood during the extraordinary events of that year. His arrival in my life has been one of the huge joys of writing this book.
My biggest thank-yous are for the unwavering insight and love of my girls, Clemmie and Flora, and for my saint of a loyal and loving husband, Charlie. The book is for them with all my love, and more.
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