This is the official biography of Edward VIII. Philip Ziegler has had full access to all the papers in the Royal archives - crucial letters to and from Edward's mother, Queen Mary, and his brother George VI, as well as diaries and letters of others in the household are quoted here for the first time. From his childhood to his restless adolescence as Prince of Wales, from his first serious affair (with Freda Dudley Ward) to his falling in love with Mrs Simpson - the background to the abdication is described in detail from the protagonists' own writings.