Author: Osbert Sitwell

Publisher: Michael Joseph

Published: 1986

Total Pages: 90

ISBN-13:

"Sir Osbert Sitwell knew that his essay on the Abdication of King Edward VIII could not be published until long after he was dead, and clearly relished writing for an audience that he would never meet. At the time it was written illness had compelled him to withdraw almost completely from public life and, as a result, he had discarded what he called a 'blank, bland mask' to hide his real feelings. He spoke his mind, and the essay reveals the overmastering anger which he felt on the occasion. Part of his anger stemmed from his devoted friendship with the Duchess of York and her husband, the future King George VI, and his affectionate respect for Queen Mary; part from his sense of betrayal of all that Edward VIII might have stood for, before and after his accession. The immediate result was the cruelly apposite poem 'Rat Week,' which is published in full for the first time as part of this essay. John Pearson, the author of 'Facades,' a composite biography of the Sitwells, writes in his introduction that the whole essay has something of the quality of impromptu private conversation. Partial and prejudiced as he was, Osbert Sitwell remains an important and unique witness of the whole bizarre Royal drama."--Front flap of book jacket.