Battle royal - Kirsty McLeod

The story of the two oldest sons of King George V - David (who became, briefly, Edward VIII) and Bertie (later George VI) tells of how the two brow-beaten boys emerge into adulthood, the one confident and self-indulgent, the other hesitant and insecure. They meet and marry - one Wallis Simpson, the other Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon - and the author reveals how these two strong and fiercely opposed women shaped their husbands' fate and that of the monarchy.

Told for the first time from the family viewpoint, this account shows how the two brothers were left, as adults, emotionally scarred by their ice-cold mother, Queen Mary, and bullying father, George V, and demonstrates how the last vestiges of brotherly love were eventually destroyed, leaving David a rootless socialite and Bertie, slower and less clever, earning the love and respect formerly bestowed on his older brother.