{"title":"Books by Andrew Lownie","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781788702980","title":"The Mountbattens","description":"FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF ENTITLED, 'THE MOST DEVASTATING ROYAL BIOGRAPHY EVER WRITTEN', DAILY MAIL'Richly entertaining... impressively well-researched' Daily MailThe Sunday Times bestselling biography of the glamorous couple behind the modern royal family, the aunt and uncle of Prince Philip.   DICKIE MOUNTBATTEN: A major figure behind his nephew Philip's marriage to Queen Elizabeth II and instrumental in the Royal Family taking the Mountbatten name, he was Supreme Allied Commander of South East Asia during World War II and the last Viceroy of India.   EDWINA MOUNTBATTEN: Once the richest woman in Britain and a playgirl who enjoyed numerous affairs, she emerged from World War II as a talented humanitarian worker loved around the­ world.   From British high society to the South of France, from the battlefields of Burma to the Viceroy's House, The Mountbattens is a rich and filmic story of a powerful partnership, revealing the truth behind a carefully curated legend.   Was Mountbatten one of the outstanding leaders of his generation, or a man over-promoted because of his royal birth, high-level connections, film-star looks and ruthless self-promotion? What is the true story behind controversies such as the Dieppe Raid and Indian Partition, the love affair between Edwina and Nehru, and Mountbatten's assassination in 1979?Based on over 100 interviews, research from dozens of archives and new information released under Freedom of Information requests, historian Andrew Lownie sheds new light on­ this remarkable couple.   'Painstakingly researched... genuinely enthralling' Observer'A page-turner which is also a carefully researched work of history' Spectator'A compelling new biography...superbly researched' Daily Express'Incisive... strongly recommend' The Times","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43205105516722,"sku":"9781788702980","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781788702980_7d6a84ef-8128-4ff0-8032-22c71b6a956d.jpg?v=1786026776"},{"product_id":"9781788704816","title":"Traitor King","description":"FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF ENTITLED, 'THE MOST DEVASTATING ROYAL BIOGRAPHY EVER WRITTEN', DAILY MAILTHE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERA Daily Mail Royal Book of the Year, 2021'Darkly compelling...hundreds of eye-popping details...Gripping ... damning portrait of the Windsors' Daily Mail 'Book of the Week'Briskly written and compulsively readable...' - A.N. Wilson, TLS'Meticulously researched' - Spectator'Entertaining... convincing... timely. Urgent reading for royals' - Evening StandardDecember 1936. The King of England, Edward VIII, has given up his Crown, foregoing his duty for the love of Wallis Simpson, an American divorcée. Their courtship has been dogged by controversy and scandal, but with Edward's abdication, they can live happily ever after. But do they?In Traitor King, bestselling historian Andrew Lownie draws on hitherto unexplored archives to uncover the dramatic world of the Windsors post-abdication. Lownie reveals a couple obsessed with their status, financially exploiting their position and manipulating the media. Filled with treachery and betrayal, this is a story of an exiled Royal and the Nazi attempts to recruit him to their cause. And of why the Royal family never forgave the Duke for choosing love over duty.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":57688197562741,"sku":"9781788704878","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":43205561188530,"sku":"9781788704816","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781788704878.jpg?v=1792686118"},{"product_id":"9780008775452","title":"Entitled","description":"\u003cp\u003eTHE SUNDAY TIMES #1 BESTSELLERA Book of the Year in The Times and Financial Times\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘The biographer who brought down Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’ THE OBSERVER\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘This isn’t a book; it’s a case for revolution’ SUNDAY TIMES\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e'Undoubtedly the most important book of the last year, if not the century' MAIL ON SUNDAY\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘This book has changed the way its readers think. Possibly the most important book that touches on the British monarchy since the days of Thomas Payne’ WILL LLOYD\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘As represented in the book’s pages, the royal family, with its appendages and penumbra, can be seen as an impossible entity, toxic to those in it and attached to it, and subtly contaminating the rest of us.’ DAVID AARONOVICH\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘Surely has a claim to the title of book of the year, for its seismic impact’ FINANCIAL TIMES\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDrawing on four years of research, numerous FOI requests and interviews with over a hundred people who have never spoken out before, the book traces the lives of the late Queen’s second son and his ex-wife through their childhoods, courtship, marriage, divorce, careers, and royal and charitable activities. Having still lived together until their departure from Royal Lodge in 2025, they claimed to be \"the happiest divorced couple in the world\". The book investigates the reality of their relationship and their love lives.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt charts Andrew’s record in the Falklands, his business activities and reveals details of how the couple have been able financially to sustain their extravagant lifestyles.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt also recounts the full story of their links with Jeffrey Epstein. Chronicling their lives in parallel, the picture that emerges is of a spoilt former prince unable to connect and a former duchess pushed by her insecurities into a desperate need to maintain the attention her ‘royal’ status brought.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRigorously researched and packed full of revelations, this is eye-watering biography at its best.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘This isn't just a royal biography. It's a study in reputational collapse and the danger of unchecked power inside Britain's most protected institution' THE STANDARD\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e‘A catalyst for Andrew’s de-princing’ THE TIMES\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":57685848129909,"sku":"9780008775490","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":56222277075317,"sku":"9780008775452","price":22.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780008775490_1e4d0885-da2f-45b1-9411-1035536afdd3.jpg?v=1792599059"},{"product_id":"9781473627383","title":"Stalin's Englishman: The Lives of Guy Burgess","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eBY THE AUTHOR OF THE BESTSELLER \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eE\u003ci\u003eNTITLED \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eTHE RISE AND FALL OF THE HOUSE OF YORK\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'\u003cb\u003eFantastically detailed . . . \u003c\/b\u003ea very \u003cb\u003equick, absorbing \u003c\/b\u003eread.'   ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐\u003cbr\u003e'Andrew Lownie's biography of Guy Burgess is that \u003cb\u003erare achievement\u003c\/b\u003e - a historical biography of \u003cb\u003econsiderable political and human complexity\u003c\/b\u003e that is also \u003cb\u003ea page turner\u003c\/b\u003e.' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐  \u003cbr\u003e'Surely the \u003cb\u003edefinitive account \u003c\/b\u003eof one of the country's most prominent traitors.'   ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGuy Burgess was the most important, complex and fascinating of 'The Cambridge Spies' - Maclean, Philby, Blunt - all brilliant young men recruited in the 1930s to betray their country to the Soviet Union. An engaging and charming companion to many, an unappealing, utterly ruthless manipulator to others, Burgess rose through academia, the BBC, the Foreign Office, MI5 and MI6, gaining access to thousands of highly sensitive secret documents which he passed to his Russian handlers.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this first full biography, Andrew Lownie shows us how even Burgess's chaotic personal life of drunken philandering did nothing to stop his penetration and betrayal of the British Intelligence Service. Even when he was under suspicion, the fabled charm which had enabled many close personal relationships with influential Establishment figures (including Winston Churchill) prevented his exposure as a spy for many years.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThrough interviews with more than a hundred people who knew Burgess personally, many of whom have never spoken about him before, and the discovery of hitherto secret files, \u003ci\u003eStalin's Englishman\u003c\/i\u003e brilliantly unravels the many lives of Guy Burgess in all their intriguing, chilling, colourful, tragi-comic wonder.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePUBLISHED TO GREAT CRITICAL ACCLAIM:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner of the St Ermin's Intelligence Book of the Year Award.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'One of the great biographies of 2015.' \u003ci\u003eThe Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFully updated edition including recently released information.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA Guardian Book of the Year. The Times Best Biography of the Year. Mail on Sunday Biography of the Year. Daily Mail \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eBiography of Year. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eSpectator Book of the Year. BBC History Book of the Year.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A remarkable and definitive portrait ' Frederick Forsyth\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Andrew Lownie's biography of Guy Burgess, Stalin's Englishman ... shrewd, thorough, revelatory.' \u003ci\u003eWilliam Boyd\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'In the sad and funny \u003ci\u003eStalin's Englishman\u003c\/i\u003e, [Lownie] manages to convey the charm as well as the turpitude.' \u003ci\u003eCraig Brown\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56301110624629,"sku":"9781473627383","price":13.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781473627383_33d42054-7eff-4b17-a768-5ed5813e18a7.jpg?v=1786020398"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-andrew-lownie.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}