Elliott & Thompson signs French's 'fresh perspective' on Wallis Simpson

Elliott & Thompson has signed a "fresh perspective" on the life of Wallis Simpson from Paul French.

Executive publisher Robin Harvie acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Clare Alexander at Aitken Alexander. Her Lotus Year: China, the Roaring Twenties and the Making of Wallis Simpson will be published in hardback and e-book on 7th November 2024.

Her Lotus Year "takes a headlong dive into [Simpson’s] early, formative years and into the China of the 1920s to explore the untold, colourful origin story of a woman too often maligned by history".

French commented: "In Her Lotus Year I hope to show a very different Wallis from the one everyone thinks they know. The year Wallis spent in China was to show her she could be independent, mix in cosmopolitan society, and make her own way in the world. It is, quite simply, the origin story of Wallis, Duchess of Windsor and, I hope, a unique insight into the China of the 1920s."