ANDREW ROSE’S THE WOMAN BEFORE WALLIS RECOUNTS THE UNTOLD STORY OF PASSION, SCANDAL, AND DECADENCE BETWEEN A COURTESAN AND A BRITISH PRINCE

Prince Edward was the King of England when he famously abdicated his crown over his love for the American divorcee Wallis Simpson. But two decades earlier, he was an awkward and inexperienced young man, socializing with Europe’s elite while stationed behind the lines during World War I. It was there he met the alluring Marguerite Alibert, the queen of the Paris demimonde.

Marguerite had fought her way up from street gamine to a woman haut de gamme to become one of the highest-ranking courtesans in Paris. Prince Edward was instantly smitten, but their affair eventually turned sour. Edward thought he was free of Marguerite–until she murdered her husband, a wealthy Egyptian playboy, by shooting him three times in the back at the Savoy Hotel in London. With Marguerite on trial for murder, Edward was at risk of having their affair exposed. What happened next was buried for decades, uncovered now thanks to exceptional access to documents held in the Royal Archives and private collections.