Two lovers. Two very different lives. One future together that will change history. When debutante Wallis Simpson is growing up, she devotes her teenage daydreams to one man, the future King of England, Prince Edward. But it's Pamela Holtby, Wallis's aristocratic best friend, who mixes within the palace circle. Wallis's first marriage to a dashing young naval pilot is not what she dreamt of; he turns out to be a dominating bully of a man, who punishes her relentlessly. But her fated marriage does open a suprising door, to the world of Navy couriers - where navy wives are being used to transport messages around the world. This interesting turn of fate takes Wallis from the exuberant social scene in Washington to a China that is just emerging from civil war. Edward in the meantime is busy fulfilling his royal duties - and some extra-curricular ones involving married women. Until the day, just before he ascends the throne as Edward VIII, he is introduced to a very special married woman, Wallis Simpson. Was Wallis Simpson really the monster the royal family perported her to be? Or was she an extraordinary woman who led an unimaginable life? A dramatic novel, that crosses continents and provides a unique insight into one of history's most charismatic and multi-faceted women.

Author Biography

Rebecca Dean is a pen-name of best-selling novelist Margaret Pemberton. Married and with five adult children she is a former chairwoman of the Romantic Novelists' Association and lives in Whitstable Kent. THE SHADOW QUEEN is her thirty-seventh novel and was born out of her fascination with the multi-layered character of Edward VIII.