Abdication, Juliet Nicolson
Abdication, Juliet Nicolson
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Abdication
A Novel

Author: Juliet Nicolson

Narrator: Carole Boyd

Unabridged: 10 hr 49 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/01/2012

Synopsis

England, 1936. The year began with the death of a beloved king and the ascension of a charismatic young monarch, sympathetic to the needs of the working class, glamorous, and single. By year's end, the world would be stunned as it witnessed that new leader give up his throne in the name of love, just as the unrest and violence that would result in a second World War were becoming impossible to ignore. In pitch-perfect prose, Juliet Nicolson has captured an era in which duty and pleasure, tradition and novelty, and order and chaos all battled for supremacy in the hearts and minds of king and commoner alike. As addictive as Downton Abbey, Abdication is a breathtaking story inspired by a love affair that shook the world.

About Juliet Nicolson

Juliet Nicolson is the author of two works of history, The Great Silence: 1918–1920 Living in the Shadow of the Great War and The Perfect Summer: Dancing into Shadow in 1911, and a novel, Abdication. As the grand-daughter of Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson and the daughter of Nigel Nicolson she is part of a renowned and much scrutinized family and the latest in the family line of record-keepers of the past. She lives with her husband in East Sussex, not far from Sissinghurst, where she spent her childhood. She has two daughters, Clemmie and Flora, and one grand-daughter, Imogen.

About Carole Boyd

Carole Boyd’s theater work includes a year performing with Alan Ayckbourn’s Scarborough Company where she created the role of June in Way Upstream, while her television credits include Hetty Wainthropp Investigates and Mystery!: Campion. Boyd also plays the notorious Lynda Snell in The Archers, is a regular reader on BBC Radio 4’s Poetry Please, and has won three audiobook awards for her recordings.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Lydia on June 05, 2012

I learned a valuable lesson while reading Abdication by Juliet Nicolson. I learned that no matter how beautiful the cover, how enticing the subject matter (should be), how perfect the name (and Abdication is such a beautiful name for a novel), if things just don't work, they just don't work. I read t......more

Goodreads review by J.M. on July 16, 2012

What do you say when you have high hopes for a juicy steak full of flavor and discover it has been replaced with soy protein? That is how I felt about Juliet Nicolson's foray into fiction . . . blah. That is not to say that there isn't a story here among the ramblings and character ske......more

Goodreads review by Patricia on September 08, 2017

I love reading stories about the Royal family, past and present, and I've always been interested in Wallis and Edward, so I thoroughly enjoyed this book, fiction based on facts. The characters were very real and I'll say that May was my favorite character in the book. She had a very interesting life......more

Goodreads review by Bronwyn on March 27, 2018

I've enjoyed some of Juliet Nicolson's non-fiction, so thought I'd try her fiction. This wasn't bad. It felt like she'd been researching 1936 and didn't have enough for a non-fiction book, so turned it into a novel - every now and then there'd be info dumps about the Queen Mary or one of Mosley's ra......more

Quotes

“I was completely gripped by the story of David and Wallis Simpson…But no less compellingly drawn were the rest of Juliet Nicolson’s cast of characters…I’m in awe of Juliet’s ability to move from nonficition to fiction so seamlessly.” Jessica Fellowes, New York Times bestselling author 

“Anyone interested in the 1930s will revel in this richly detailed slant on the abdication crisis.” Daisy Goodwin, New York Times bestselling author

“Nicolson’s eye for period detail is spot-on, and her characterizations of the main players are superb…This is a delightful story of a friendship forged by the drama of the abdication and the approaching war; ideal for the intelligent deckchair.” Times (London)

“Absorbing…As the abdication crisis deepens and Britain is thrust ever closer to the perils of war, the lives of Nicolson’s characters undergo significant changes, all rendered by her keen comprehension of human nature.” Richmond Times-Dispatch

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