Six Degrees of Separation: End of the Affair by Graham Greene

How the meme works

Books can be linked in obvious ways – for example, books by the same authors, from the same era or genre, or books with similar themes or settings. Or, you may choose to link them in more personal ways: books you read on the same holiday, books given to you by a particular friend, books that remind you of a particular time in your life, or books you read for an online challenge.

A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the other books on the list, only to the ones next to them in the chain. You can read all the rules at Books Are My Favourite and Best.

I read this book when I was too  young to appreciate it. I loved the movie with Deborah Kerr. I may try to listen to it now that I am “old enough to appreciate it”–especially since Colin Firth is the performer on the new version.

My Chain

Covert Affair by Jennet Conant was the first “affair” book that came to mind. These two served in a part of WWII headed by an expert at affairs!

The “Supremo” or Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia, where the Julia and Paul Child served was Prince Philip’s Uncle” Dickie.” The Mountbattens by Andrew Lownie. Lord Louis (aka “Dickie”) as he was then, is famous for saying that he and wife, Edwina, spent the whole of their married life getting in and out of bed with other people.

I have read, but not reviewed The Mountbattens: Their Life and Loves by Andrew Lownie

Another scandalous Mountbatten was Nada, Marchioness of Milford Haven. Born Countess Nadejda de Torby daughter of Russian Grand Duke Michael Michalovich and sister-in-law of Dicki Mountbatten, she was mentioned in the trial over “Little Gloria” for having been the same-sex lover of Gloria’s mother. (For those who do not know, “Little Gloria,” is the mother of Anderson Cooper).

[It was Nada and her husband, George, who mostly took care of Prince Philip in the holidays. Dickie came in only after George’s death. It is Nada’s grandson, Ivor, who is the first openly gay (and in a single-sex marriage) member of the greatly extended “royal” family. He was at school with Prince Edward].

 

Little Gloria’s mother had a twin sister, Thelma, who was the “woman before Wallis” in the life of the then Prince of Wales, Edward (aka “David” to friends and family). He had one of the most notorious affairs in history.

 

One of the saddest and most cowardly things done by a royal until that Oprah interview, was the way Edward, Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII) dumped his long-time mistress, Freida Dudley Ward. When she called, as she did every day he was in London. the Buckingham Palace Operator had to do the dirty work for his future sovereign by saying “I’m sorry, Ma’am, I have orders not to put your through.” He had been almost a second father to her daughters and had been with her since the [WWI] the War.

 

If you thought that fabled tampon conversation was the most embarrassing thing to come out of a royal affair, you ain’t seen nothing yet! David and Wallis wrote each other infantile letters (well, David mostly did). That a Field Marshall could write such drivel doesn’t shock me. I’ve read General of the Army [5 star general–US equivalent to a Field Marshall] Douglas MacArthur’s “Dimples/Daddy” letters to his mistress, “Dimples” which he signed “Daddy.” David had the mumps during puberty. It and the sycophants ruined him.

I left the royals take this chain over, but honestly? It’s what came to mind! I wish I could do a neat-and-tidy round up the chain into a circle, but….. 

 

Why not join the fun next month? We’ll start out chains with Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield.