The Last of the Duchess

This is an investigation into the last years of the Duchess of Windsor. Once the epitome of glamour, Wallis Warfield Simpson Windsor spent her last days alone and ill in her Paris chateau, guarded by her lawyer Maitre Suzanne Blum. This book tells of the author's quest for the Duchess and her encounters with Blum. Blackwood came to the shuttered house in the Bois de Boulogne in 1980, commisioned by the "Sunday Times" to write a piece to accompany a photo-session with the Duchess by Lord Snowdon. But the photographs were never taken. Instead, Maitre Blum became the subject of both photographs and interview and her passion for the Duchess aroused Blackwood's curiosity. Why was the Duchess's lawyer so keen to prevent anyone from seeing her, even her oldest friends? What was it about the Duchess that evoked such depth of feeling in her lawyer? In answering these questions, this book takes the reader behind the facade of the Windsor myth to give an account of the life - and death - of the Duchess.