Abdication, a Novel by Juliet Nicolson

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Abdication: A Novel

Even so, May longed to have the money to pay for the tea. May had arrived in London with twenty pounds that her mother had given her. "I wish I could afford to give you more, my darling," her mother had said.

Title: Abdication by Juliet Nicolson
May 22, 2012; Atria Books Hardcover
Genre: historical novel
Source: publisher

Book description: England, 1936. 
The year began with the death of a beloved king and the ascension of a charismatic young monarch, sympathetic, glamorous and single. By year’s end, the world would be stunned as Edward VIII gives up his throne in the name of love, just as the unrest and violence that would result in a Second World War were becoming impossible to ignore. 

During the tumultuous intervening months, wise-beyond-her-nineteen-years May Thomas will take the first, faltering steps toward creating a new life for herself. She secures a position as secretary and driver to Sir Philip Blunt, a job that will open her eyes to the activities of the uppermost echelons of British society, and her heart to a man seemingly beyond her reach. 

May and others become embroiled in the hidden truths, undeclared loves, unspoken sympathies and covert complicities that define the year chronicled in Abdication. Abdication is a story inspired by a love affair that shook the world at a time when the world was on the brink of war.