This is a collection of mainly letters to friends and family from Sir Alan (“Tommy”) Lascelles, who worked as Assistant Private Secretary/Private Secretary for Edward VIII (David), the Governor-General of Canada, George V very briefly before his death, and George VI. There are also some letters from his wife and children in here as well to flesh out the portrait. The main reason to read this is the draw of Tommy’s descriptions and insight into David’s psychology and activities as the Prince of Wales, and I had seen Tommy pop up non-stop during my other reading in this time period. There are some people like Harold Nicolson, Duff Cooper, Chips Channon, or Alec Hardinge who keep showing up over and over again and it was nice to read at length from Tommy’s point of view instead of brief quotes in a wider narrative.
The book covers 1920-1936, most of which is taken up with David’s trips to America, Canada and East Africa. There is also a lengthy section about Tommy’s Private Secretary experience in Canada for the Governor General, which has too much about his fishing expeditions in it. I get that he absolutely loved and was devoted to salmon fishing, but I didn’t feel that the editor needed to include two multi page letters to his friend describing the day by day trip and each fish he caught. I also thought that while I got hints of David’s behavior and why Tommy felt that he was going to make a terrible King, Tommy’s sense of moral uprightness and discretion kept him from speaking clearly about what exactly David was up to that made Tommy quit entirely in despair. There is one exchange Tommy has with Stanley Baldwin where they both agree that it would be best for the country if David fell off his horse and broke his neck before becoming King, which was pretty shocking and pointed out how seriously they felt about his completely terrible character. But what exactly David’s bad actions were (beyond vague references to partying and women) were opaquely referenced. I did appreciate how much he seemed to love his wife and I enjoyed his wife’s pretty excoriating letter when he told her he was going to abruptly quit working for David without telling her. The description of George V’s death was also quite interesting and moving.
I plowed through this pretty quickly and it was a good addition to my knowledge base, but I don’t know that it gave me more insight that I had already. All in all, a worthwhile read but only for the aficionado.