title: Princes at War: The Bitter Battle Inside Britains Royal Family in the Darkest Days of WWII
author:  Deborah Cadbury 
description: &#147;Ms. Cadbury has written a riveting book that underlines the tragedy of an infinitely powerful family tainted by a scandal as sordid as the duchess could make it.&#8221;&#151;<B><I>Washington Times</I></B><BR><BR>&#147;A thrilling account of the fallout after Prince Edward, heir to the throne, abdicated to marry his American lover&#151;as his brother, Prince Albert, became King George VI and attempted to save Europe from Nazi Germany&#133;. Cadbury artfully captures the exhilaration of Operation Dynamo at Dunkirk&#133;the devastation of the London blitz, and the suspenseful planning and execution of the Normandy invasion. Her nuanced exploration of the king&#39;s reticent temperament and the psychic toll taken by his many troubles creates a fuller picture of the man, who was destined to lead during a &#145;spectacular downfall&#39; in British power.&#8221;&#151;<B><I>Publishers Weekly,</I> *STARRED*</B><BR><BR>&#147;A spirited historical lesson&#133;Cadbury weaves an engaging portrait of a king resigned to his fate yet honorably resolute, gaining the cooperation of his two loyal brothers, Gloucester and Kent, and keeping his wayward brother at arm's length and out of trouble. A lively tale of monarchical machinations.&#8221;&#151;<B><I>Kirkus Reviews</I></B><br /><br /><div>&#147;Meticulous and measured analysis of the Windsor saga&#133; Cadbury deftly weaves the stories of the royal dukes into the unfolding national crisis as appeasement gives way to war.&#133;[She] covers the war years&#151;Dunkirk, the Blitz, the Normandy invasion&#151;in moving detail&#8221;&#151;<B><I>Wall Street Journal</I></B><BR><BR>&#147;A gripping account of love and war at this most perilous passage in modern European history&#133;.This story of war and remembrance&#151;aided by the rediscovery of documents&#151;is one of the most riveting tales of the nonfiction season, rendered with novelistic drama but deliberate detachment. The inner tensions of the palace during wartime and the inner tensions of a remarkable family make for one of the best, and ultimately most uplifting, stories of the war years.&#8221;&#151;<B><I>The Boston Globe</I></B><BR><BR>&#147;Right from the opening vignette of the 1936 abdication, I was absorbed into a world of jealousy and back-biting but also loyalty, courage and sacrifice&#133;. What makes this biography so extraordinary is that Cadbury has carefully plotted a timeline, placing each person, and each event in context, building a clear, concise and riveting web of stories into a wondrous book.&#8221;&#151;<B><I>Maclean's</I></B></div><br /><br />&#147;The contrast between the two brothers&#151;one dutiful and earnest struggling to deal with the responsibilities that had been forced upon him, the other blithe and solipsistic&#151;is drawn with great dramatic effect in <I>Princes at War</I>&#133; Deborah Cadbury combines the family drama against the backdrop of the war with terrific narrative verve.&#8221;&#151;<B><I>The Times</I> (UK)</B><BR><BR>&#147;<I>Princes at War</I> is a well-researched and entertaining account of a particularly poignant period in history &#133; Cadbury writes uncommonly well and her book is definitely worth reading.&#8221;&#151;<B><I>The Telegraph</I> (UK)</B><BR><BR>&#147;This is a highly readable and finely written account of the drama which threatened to bring king and country crashing down. Only stammering Bertie emerges as a hero.&#8221;&#151;<B><I>Daily Express</I> (UK)</B><BR><BR>&#147;Cadbury&#39;s history of the royal family at war reads like a novel, emphasizing the uncertainty of the early years of the hostilities when the outcome was unknown. &#133; <I>Princes at War</I> is a gripping account of a royal family at war and the lasting consequences of the conflict for the modern monarchy.&#8221;&#151;<B>Carolyn Harris, royal historian</B>
zlib_text: THE DUKE’S HAPPY HOLIDAY
  1
  William Talbot, the Duke of Anglingham, restlessly tapped his leather
  gloves against his thigh with one hand. In the other, he clutched the
  handle of his coach door. His liveried driver stood in attendance
  outside, most probably growing impatient at William’s reluctance to
  leave the coach.
  It had been two weeks ago that his cousin, Oliver Boswell, had
  managed to convince him to agree to this arrangement.
  It had been at a party, hosted by Oliver himself, that the agreement
  had taken place. He had been under no false notions regarding the
  whole a air, and had dreaded attending the event in the first place.
  He shuddered now, thinking back to that night.
  He did not harbour any misconstrued notions surrounding his
  personal opinion of the ton. The glittering fashionable high society of
  London were, simply put, terribly di cult for him to tolerate. Alas, he
  still found himself ensnared among those various expensively attired
  packs of henwits, all vying for his atten