Windsors - 200 words

Dear blog-readers - this is not part of the blog. This is in fact a piece of live copy. I leave it here for your delectation ... maybe you've never seen a piece of genuine hackery before. Basically the Express' e-mail system had gone down, and I'd had to file 200 more words on a tasty little piece about two of my favourite subjects: The Duchess of Windsor and Adolf Hitler. The only way to get it to them was to leave it on the blog.


Fergus - sorry that the story needed re-working. Here's 200 more words. Do call if there are any problems. Bill


The Windsors’ tour of Germany raised many eyebrows - not least in America, where the New York Times reported: “The Duke’s decision to see for himself the Third Reich’s industries and social institutions and his gestures and remarks during the last two weeks have demonstrated adequately that the abdication did indeed rob Germany of a firm friend, if not indeed a devoted admirer, on the British throne.”
But one of the more bizarre twists of the German tour was that Simpson, before she became the Duchess, had slept with Hitler’s foreign minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, on 17 occasions.
This extraordinary detail, courtesy of a huge cache of files which were drawn up by concerned bureau chiefs at the FBI, tellingly reveals how Simpson would bed any man with power and influence. Her tally of bedroom conquests was probably at least up there with that of the Duke’s.
The affair began when von Ribbentrop - a former Champagne salesman - was sent to London as German ambassador in 1936 to try and broker a peace deal. In this he ultimately failed - though as a dubious second best, he did succeed in seducing the Prince of Wales’ paramour. ENDS