{"product_id":"the-darkness-of-wallis-simpson","title":"The Darkness of Wallis Simpson","description":"\u003cp\u003eA wonderful new collection of short stories, most of which are published here for the first time. Wallis Simpson, the twice-divorced American woman for whom Edward VIII abdicated in 1936, ended her life (as the Duchess of Windsor) as the prisoner of her lawyer who would not allow anyone — friend, foe or journalist — to visit her in her Paris flat. Rose Tremain takes this true story and transforms it into an imaginative and ironic fiction. Her thesis is that Wallis, gaga and bed-ridden, had forgotten the king who gave up an empire for love of her. This superb story plays with the selectiveness of memory: why does Wallis recall the seemingly unimportant, while forgetting the glory days of her notoriety? She can remember her first two husbands — one a bit of a brute, the other very boring — but not the world-famous third one. The other stories in this magnificent collection range over a variety of themes, equally original and unexpected: an East German border guard, redundant after the Berlin Wall comes down in 1989, imagines that he might still have a purpose in life. He tries to reach Russia by bicycling across the hostile wastes of Poland. A jilted man gets his revenge. A baby grows wings. A character in an Impressionist painting escapes from his “frame” — or does he? And there’s a Christmas story set in a seedy hotel. From the Hardcover edition.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"sb-details\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/rose-tremain-books\"\u003eRose Tremain\u003c\/a\u003e (all their books in stock)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFormat:\u003c\/strong\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublished:\u003c\/strong\u003e 2006\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 224\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/strong\u003e Vintage\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eISBN:\u003c\/strong\u003e 9780099268567\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage","offers":[{"title":"Poor Condition — £1.00","offer_id":47908994580657,"sku":"SB-0099268566-C4","price":1.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0618\/2669\/5345\/files\/0099268566.jpg?v=1789615141","url":"https:\/\/sellbooks.co.uk\/products\/the-darkness-of-wallis-simpson","provider":"Sell Books .co.uk","version":"1.0","type":"link"}