Noblesse Oblige: The Duchess of Windsor as I knew her

This book is largely autobiographical, to the extent that the Duchess of Windsor is often merely an incidental character in it. Richard René Silvin knew Wallis in the later stages of her life, and his interactions with her were not at any intimate level. The Duke himself was dead by the time Silvin met the Duchess, so he never saw them together. The book also seems to have originated as a series of notes, which have been rather amateurishly ghost-written into a narrative by the editor, Nicole Musick.There is also no independent way of verifying whether any of this is true... and some passages smack of invention, rather than fact.All these factors make this a not very-well-written book which sheds little light on Wallis, who remains an enigmatic personality, still the center of endless interest decades after her death. Much of it is simply a retelling of the familiar stories of her life and the Abdication.While I can't recommend it to anyone who is really eager to find about Wallis, Richard René Silvin does offer some personal observations of "the woman who stole our King" in her old age, which do have some interest, so it gets 3 stars. But there are many more revealing and interesting biographies of Wallis out there. Readers interested in Wallis could try Anne Sebba's  That Woman: The Life of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor , Ralph Martin's  The Woman He Loved  or even Wallis's own autobiography,  The Memoirs of the Duchess of Windsor, the Heart Has Its Reasons .

If you are a serious student of the period and the history of the Duke and Duchess's lives, pass this one up. There are several in depth scholarly books far better than this one. A much better accounting of the Duchess's last years is The Last of the Duchess by Caroline Blackwood. If you are looking for light anectodal entertainment this book is an easy quick read. I passed over the autobiographical sections the author inserted about himself and just read the parts pertaining to the Duchess. That is, after all, why I took a chance on this book in the first place. It is illustrated, which is a plus, but nothing I hadn't seen before.

I found this piece highly interesting as a slice of life in the Duchess's latter years. It shows her as a tenacious humorous lady slowly slipping away. The book is made considerably more interesting than most on her life because of her relationship with the author. Mr. Silvin had an interesting and meaningful relationship that provides greater insight than the average interview type autobiography where the author had no relationship.My wife and I have now read the other books by this author and found them captivating. The books are more about Mr. Silvin and his most interesting life. They are extremely well written and I highly recommend them.We also had the opportunity to hear the author speak to an audience of 350 in West Palm Beach and found it to be well received. The question and answer session was most informative.Given the opportunity one should attend the lectures..Highly recommend all books and lectures.

I am fascinated by the life of Wallis Warfied, and this book satiated part of that. It is written by a man who knew and interacted with the Duchess in her later life, so I am sure he knows what he's writing about. He comes up with a lot of fascinating facts and trivia about her and the book is very interesting to read. I am disappointed on the poor and sloppy editing, though. There are a number of spelling errors. On the whole, I recommend it as a good read.

what THAT WOMAN became

She was quite a gal. I've read other books on her but this one dealt with her old age and senility.

I thought that this book would be more about the relationship between the author and the Duchess and what it was like to be friends with her but did not find it to be so. There is just enough about her to keep you going, but I found myself skipping chapter after chapter to get to a page where he finally mentions her again. Entire chapters are devoted to talking about his business dealings and "dilemmas" with the hospital -which I personally found boring and pointless. Lots of unnecessary backstory if your goal is to learn more about HER. I also felt the author was quite braggy in his writing about himself and dropped peoples names left and right- many of which I failed to see any relevance to the story. I would say overall disappointing if you are looking to learn more about the Duchess but fantastic if you want to know about the life if an uber-privileged male socialite in Paris. Yawn.

This book was quite interesting written by someone who knew the Duchess. The author has a striking resemblance to the Duke. Interesting.

An interesting perspective about the Duchess of Windsior and her support of and interest in the American Hospital in Paris