The Last of the Duchess: The Strange and Sinster Story of the Final Years of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor

In 1980, Lady Caroline Blackwood was commissioned by The Sunday Times to write an article on the aging Duchess of Windsor, who was said to be convalescing in her French mansion in the Bois de Boulogne. Yet what began as a curiosity was to become for Blackwood one of the most challenging experiences of her writing career, launching her into a battle of wits with the Duchess's formidable lawyer, Maître Suzanne Blum.
 
Maître Blum refused to let Blackwood near the Duchess, spinning …