Everyone knows the story of Edward
and Wallis. What drew you to Thelma’s story instead?
Thelma’s affair with Edward is only
aspect of her story: she was on the periphery not only of the abdication
crisis, but also the biggest custody battle in US history to date. She was
something of a Kardashian in her day – famous for being famous – but she was
also strong-willed, and willing to stand up for those she loved. Other people
have written beautifully about Wallis and Edward, but Thelma’s story deserved
to be told on its own merits.
This novel contains the real-life
stories of real life people – some of whom have living descendants. How did you
balance the drive to tell a good story against the historical record in terms
of character development?
It’s a tricky balance to strike, but
at the end of the day my job is to tell a good story, taking as much historical
fact into consideration as I can without sacrificing the plot. I spent a lot of
time researching the people who make up my book: luckily, Thelma and Gloria
wrote a memoir, and we have plenty of letters, biographies, and recordings of
Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson, so by the time I started actually writing, I
had a very good sense of who they were. Wallis in particular leapt out of the
pen, and I think that’s because she’s left such a legacy behind. I certainly
hope that they would see themselves in the characters I’ve created, but at the
end of the day these are fictional representations.
How did you find Thelma’s story?
I’d long been interested in the
abdication crisis, and had read biographies of Wallis Simpson before, but I’d
never really picked up on Thelma’s story until I watched W.E., a movie directed by Madonna about Wallis and Edward’s
relationship. In the film, we see Wallis and Thelma have that conversation
where Thelma asks Wallis to “take care” of Edward for her while she’s travelling,
and I remember thinking it was such a strange request to make of a friend –
even one as close as Wallis was to Thelma. After the movie ended I found myself
down a bit of a Wikipedia rabbit hole, where I discovered her connection to the
Gloria Vanderbilt trial, and recognized that this was a story that ought to be
told.
One of the major relationships in
this novel is between Gloria and Nada. Why was it important to you to show a
relationship between two women in the 1930s?
Their relationship is historical
fact: it would have been disingenuous to omit it from the book. I truly believe
that Gloria loved Nada, and had they lived in a different time period their
story would have ended quite differently. What’s more interesting to me is the
fact that their relationship was permitted because of social privilege – and
when Gloria lost that privilege, their relationship fell apart.
How does Gloria’s experience as a
queer woman shape Thelma’s actions?
To me, THE WOMAN BEFORE WALLIS is a
love story – but it’s not a royal romance. While the abdication crisis looms
large over Thelma’s life, this is a book about the love between sisters: Thelma
supported her sister in a day and age when being gay was seen as unacceptable –
except, as Gloria points out, in the highest echelons of society. In the
history books, Thelma has often been dismissed as a lesser socialite, but when
it comes down to it, she was a deeply principled woman, and her experience as
an ally spoke to me.
After spending so long with his
character, how do you feel about Edward VIII and his decision to abdicate?
I think Edward VIII would have found
an excuse to abdicate, regardless of whether Wallis Simpson had come into his
life or not. He was a fundamentally weak man, and would have made a fundamentally
weak king – and while in my novel I have him talk to Thelma about the sort of
king he wants to be, I don’t think he ever intended on taking up his crown. If
it hadn’t been Wallis, he would have found another excuse to abdicate.
That said, Thelma was genuinely in
love with him. It was important for me to find a way into that love, and to be
able to portray him with some compassion.
Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson are
known to have been Nazi sympathizers. Why don’t you address this in your book?
I don’t address it for three
reasons. First, Thelma and Edward’s relationship ended in 1934. Hitler only
became chancellor in 1933, so while he would have been a topic of conversation
around the dinner table, he wouldn’t have been the main topic of conversation.
Second, Thelma was not a political person. One of the biggest complaints the
government levied against Wallis Simpson was her political activism – in fact,
when it became clear Edward wouldn’t give Wallis up, there was a movement
within government to invite Thelma back to England because she wasn’t seen as
someone who would interfere in politics the way Wallis did. Finally, the sad
fact is that many members of Britain’s upper crust had extreme right-wing
leanings in the 1930s, and many were generally supportive of Hitler’s policies.
At the time, socialism was seen as a far greater threat than fascism,
particularly because the General Strike of 1926 had been so successful in
disrupting industrial production. Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists had
50,000 members at the height of its popularity in the 1930s.
In the end, I find it incredibly
interesting that history shook out in such a way that Britain had the king it
needed during the war. Could you imagine what would have happened if George VI
hadn’t been on the throne during the Blitz?
Do you think Wallis intended to
replace Thelma?
I don’t think she did. Whatever else
has been written about her – and there has been a lot written about her –
Wallis was an extremely ambitious social climber. I believe that Wallis was
genuinely trying to keep Edward’s eye from straying, for Thelma’s sake, but
when it became clear that his affection had transferred to her, she didn’t feel
too much guilt in taking advantage of the situation.
She certainly didn’t intend to marry
Edward – that much is clear. In 2011, Anne Sebba published a biography of
Wallis Simpson which contains previously unpublished letters between Wallis and
Ernest Simpson – she wrote to him until the end of her life, and expressed
regret at having ended their marriage. I believe that Wallis had hoped to take
advantage of Edward’s attraction to make new friends and move in the highest
social circle in Britain. She genuinely believed that Edward would tire of her
before too long – when he didn’t, I think she was as surprised as anyone else.
What did you enjoy most about
researching this book?
I wasn’t on any fixed timeline to
complete this book, so I was able to spend two full years researching – just
researching! – the time period. I particularly enjoyed researching the fashion
of the 1930s– the attention to detail is incredible, especially for someone who
had Thelma’s budget. I was able to access a lot of newspaper articles about the
Vanderbilt trial at the New York Public Library, which really helped me
understand the frenzy that the trial had created. A photographer actually did
try to rappel down the side of the courthouse to get a picture of the
proceedings! The trial reached newspapers in Pakistan! I went to London and
walked Thelma’s neighbourhood – while Duke’s Arlington townhouse is no longer
there, I visited her home in Mayfair and had drinks in the Ritz.
My favourite research moment,
though, was finding Edward’s plane, and while I wish I’d had the right place to
put it in the manuscript, it did help me come to an understanding of who he was
as a person. One of his planes is at the Vintage Wings museum in Gatineau,
Quebec, and I was able to visit it: it’s a beautiful little biplane with an
open cockpit and a closed cabin for passengers. The plane itself looks like a
Rolls Royce, with beautiful a chrome and indigo body and burgundy leather
interior: but the best part of it is that Edward had a small generator
installed on one of the wings so that he could power a wireless radio. While
that sounds like a good idea, Vintage Wings was kind enough to take me up in a
plane of a similar vintage, and I was struck by how unbelievably loud it was up
in the air. Even with headphones on, it would have been extremely difficult to
hear anything on a wireless.
I think this really sums up who
Edward was. He was so concerned with his image – with looking and feeling like
a modern royal – that he forgot to take into account the practicalities of the
situation.
THE
WOMAN BEFORE WALLIS
Author:
Bryn Turnbull
ISBN:
9780778361022
Publication
Date: July 21, 2020
Publisher:
MIRA Books
Buy
Links:
Book
Summary:
An
irresistible historical debut, THE WOMAN BEFORE WALLIS (MIRA Trade Paperback;
July 21, 2020) is set in the glamorous world of British and American royalty in
the 1920s, based on the true story of the woman who owned Prince Edward's heart
before introducing him to her dear friend Wallis. Perfect for fans of Netflix’s The Crown and Jennifer Robson’s The Gown.
Before Edward, Prince of Wales famously abdicated
his throne for American divorcee Wallis Simpson, he loved another American
woman: Thelma Morgan Furness, sister to the first Gloria Vanderbilt. This is
her story.
The daughters of an American diplomat, Thelma and
Gloria Morgan were stars of New York social scene in the early 1920s, dubbed
“the magnificent Morgans.” Both would marry into wealth and privilege beyond
their imaginations, Gloria to Reggie Vanderbilt, and Thelma to a viscount.
Thelma begins an affair with Edward, the dashing Prince of Wales, that will
last nearly five years.
Then, in 1934, Thelma's life is upended by her
sister Gloria's custody trial — a headline-grabbing drama known as The Matter
of Vanderbilt, which dominates global news for months and raises the bar for
tabloid sensationalism. Back in New York, sued by members of her late husband's
family on charges of negligence, unfit parenting and homosexuality, Gloria
needs her twin's support more than ever. But as her sister gains international
notoriety, Thelma fears that her own fall from grace might not be far behind.
ONE
October 9, 1934
RMS Empress of Britain
THELMA CONSIDERED MANHATTAN HER HOME,
though she hadn’t lived there for over ten years. To her, it was a city
of firsts: she had smoked her first cigarette there, a Lucky Strike stolen from
a nun’s desk drawer at the convent and passed around the dormitory after
bedtime. She and her twin sister, Gloria, had rented their first apartment on
Fifth Avenue: an attic brownstone, which, at sixteen years old, they were far
too young to live in unchaperoned but did so anyways, stuffing the living room
with flowers and leaving the icebox empty. Her first encounter with the society
pages had been at New York Harbor: she was eight at the time, mobbed by
reporters at the behest of their diplomat father in an attempt to turn the tone
of a negative press scrum. The next day’s papers would run pictures not of
Harry Morgan on his recall to Washington but of his twin daughters, Thelma and
Gloria, walking down the gangplank in matching pinafores.
First marriage, thought Thelma, gripping the
sable collar of her coat more tightly around her neck. First divorce. She stayed on deck long enough to watch the ship
slip past the redbrick buildings of Southampton before seeking refuge from the
chill air.
Though Thelma felt
uneasy at the prospect of being away from David for nearly six weeks, she knew
that she had little choice: Gloria’s trial had become a media sensation,
chewing up columns on front pages across America and Europe. The custody
battle, dubbed the “Trial of the Century” by reporters who squeezed onto the
courthouse steps each day, was a nightmare for her sister, forced to defend not
only her right to raise her own daughter but also to preserve her own good
name. Thelma still rankled at the letter Gloria had sent her: For Reggie’s sister to believe what’s being
said about me is bad enough, but to know that the rumors came from our own
mother is too much to bear…
Thelma knew that the
stories would continue long after the trial concluded—it was inevitable, given
that it revolved around a Vanderbilt daughter with a Vanderbilt fortune. She
had received the letter five days ago and booked passage on the earliest
steamer bound for New York. If it had been either of her other
siblings—Consuelo or Harry Junior—in this situation, Thelma would have offered
what help she could, but as her twin, Gloria held Thelma’s allegiance the
strongest. It was how it had always been: one supporting the other.
There was only one
consideration weighing on Thelma’s mind which made it difficult for her to
focus on what she would find in America.
“Shall I come, too?”
David had asked days ago at Fort Belvedere. Dismal weather had driven Thelma,
David and their guests indoors, an afternoon of weeding David’s gardens
mercifully replaced by card games and needlepoint round the drawing room fire.
David laid his embroidery hoop to one side, the half-finished rose pointing
sightlessly at the ceiling.
Across the room,
Wallis Simpson, perusing the contents of the bar cart, turned.
“Don’t be silly,” she
said. From a club chair in the corner, Wallis’s husband, Ernest, folded down
the corner of a newspaper. There was a momentary silence as Wallis’s long
fingers trailed delicately along the crystal tops of several heavy decanters
before she selected one.
“You can’t possibly
think it’s a good idea for him to get caught up in this mess,” she said,
glancing at Thelma as she poured a neat scotch. “You’ve seen the papers. Can
you imagine the sort of froth they’d work themselves into if the Prince of
Wales stuck his oar in? I don’t mean to offend you, Thelma,” she said, “but it’s
just not seemly for him to get involved, don’t you agree?”
David’s brows knitted
together as Wallis handed him the whiskey. “I feel so terrible about it all,”
he said. “Gloria’s a decent sort. She doesn’t deserve all this…surely there’s
something I can do?” He looked up at Thelma, his spaniel eyes imploring.
Wallis sat down. “You
can let Thelma go to support her sister,” she said. “Gloria needs her family,
sir, not the distraction of a royal sideshow.”
“Wally’s quite right,
sir,” said Ernest, resting his newspaper on his lap. “You’d be hindering more
than you’d help. Couldn’t fix me up one of those as well, could you, darling?”
David exhaled, but
didn’t look convinced. “Perhaps,” he said, as Wallis returned to the cart. “I
wouldn’t want to add any more controversy to this ghastly business, but I hate
the thought of you going on your own.”
Thelma sat beside
him, smiling at the thought of what David’s advisors would say if he so much as
commented on the Vanderbilt trial, let alone sailed to America.
“They have a point,”
she said, taking his hand in hers. “I don’t think there’s much for you to do.
But thank you for wanting to help.”
He smiled, worry
carved into the lines of his face. “Of course,” he said, and kissed Thelma on
the cheek. He picked up his needlepoint, lifting the embroidery hoop to inspect
the stitching more closely. “Just don’t stay away from me too long. I don’t
think I could stand it.”
Perching herself on
the armrest of Ernest’s chair, Wallis caught Thelma’s eye. She smiled, red lips
curling in a wide, reassuring grin.
Excerpted from The Woman Before
Wallis by Bryn Turnbull, Copyright © 2020 by Bryn Turnbull.
Author
Bio:
|
Bryn
Turnbull is a writer of historical fiction with a
penchant for fountain pens and antique furniture. Equipped with a Master of
Letters in Creative Writing from the University of St. Andrews, a Master of
Professional Communication from Ryerson University, and a Bachelor’s degree
in English Literature from McGill University, Bryn focuses on finding the
stories of women found within the cracks of the historical record. When she’s
not writing, Bryn can be found exploring new coffee shops, spending time with
her family in cottage country, or traveling. She lives in Toronto, and can
generally be found with a book in hand. |
Social
Links:
Twitter: @BrynTurnbull
Instagram: @brynturnbullwrites
Facebook: @brynturnbullwrites
No comments:
Post a Comment