D.J. Taylor’s The Windsor Faction imagines a
scenario in the 1930s, as the war in Europe approaches, which is different from
the history. Edward VIII has not abdicated. His American lover, Wallis Simpson,
has died of cancer in 1937, and Edward has assumed throne. The stammering
younger brother with his wife and ‘girls’ has been dispatched to Sandringham.
Hitler, in the meanwhile, has assumed control of Germany and has started
occupying sovereign nations on the dubious grounds that he is protecting the
interests of the German minorities in these nations. He has also not left
anyone in doubt about what he intends to do to the Jews. Kristallnacht has happened. The British government, still led by
Neville Chamberlain, is deeply uneasy about the intention of the Germans, and
has been making disapproving noises about the aggressive German tendencies. The
German army has gathered behind the Maginot Line, and many in Britain feel that
the Germans are going to invade France, which would make war inevitable. In
fact the war has already begun, officially, but both sides are waiting for the
other to make the first move. The British are waiting to see whether the
Germans would cross the Maginot Line.
Not everyone in Britain, though, is in favour of the war, or
thinks that war with Germany would be in the British national and international
interests. They are concerned that a protracted European war, as this one is
bound to turn out to be, would be the death-knell of the Empire. “It’d be
impossible to hold on to India,” Captain Ramsay, one of the few real-life-
characters (Ramsay was a Tory MP from 1933 to 1945, the novel informs the
reader at the end; and, fiercely anti-War and anti-Semite, was interned during
the war) that play a pivotal role in the novel, says. The political faction
that is against the war, the so-called pacifists, comprises Back-bench Tories,
some of whom fought in the Great War; right wing intellectuals;
isolationists in the American Embassy who believe that America should not get
herself embroiled in the European conflict; and nut-cases who believe that the
war is a world-wide conspiracy of Jews, and the only community that stands to
benefit from this is of the profiteering Jews. The anti-war lobby suspects,
and the suspicion lifts its spirits, that the King, Edward VIII, is against the
war, and is sympathetic to their position: a negotiated peace with the Germans,
in a neutral territory, such as Ireland, should be attempted. Germans, on their
part, are giving coded signals that they would be willing to negotiate, but
would not give back the territory that they have appropriated.
The Windsor Faction is the story of the frenetic months that
lead to Second World War, in its alternative reality. Taylor has chosen to tell
the story from the point of view of a fictional character, Cynthia Kirkpatrick,
who, unwittingly, gets involved in the cloak-and-dagger game. As the novel
opens, Cynthia is in Ceylon, where her parents made a tidy fortune.
Cynthia returns to England as the drums of the war in Europe begin to sound. In
London she finds herself a job in a literary rag called Duration. In the office she meets Anthea Carey, who, it seems, is
not what she appears to be. Cynthia also begins an affair with Tyler Kent
(another real life character, who apparently worked in the American Embassy and
was also interned during the war because of his anti-war activities), a clerk in the American Embassy. Captain Ramsay, Tyler
Kent, and Bannister (a fictional character), another Tory backbencher MP who is
anti-war (as sinister, though not as unhinged, as Captain Ramsay) are all in
cahoots, and, it would seem, stop at nothing to stop the war unleashed on
Britain by the Jews. The Bannisters are family friends of the Kirkpatricks,
having made their ill-deserved fortune in the colonies, and to whose son both
sets of parents once hoped Cynthia would marry (although it did not happen as
said son perished in a freak car accident when he took Cynthia out for a drive
in Kandy, though not before, in the good old English fashion, he had had clumsy
sex with her). Tyler Kent, who works as a clerk in the American Embassy, is
smuggling out telegrams of the president, into the hands of Ramsay. MI5,
needless to say, are aware of these shenanigans and are keeping these
characters who, they have a strong reason to believe, are up to no good, under
surveillance. MI5 are also keeping a close eye on the king, who, they rightly
suspect, is against the war and might act in a manner that might compromise the
official position of the British government, not to mention the country’s
security. It’s all jolly good fun, and, although the novel does not trigger a lava-flow
of adrenaline through your arteries, it keeps you riveted as it rattles along at
a comfortable pace. If the end seems a bit anti-climactic it is also plausible.
Reading The Windsor Faction is a strange
experience, in the main, I think, because the reader is not sure whether Taylor
wants to write a political noir thriller or a slapstick social comedy. (Perhaps
Taylor himself isn’t, either). There is no settled tone to the narrative voice
(this is not a criticism). Indeed the opening pages of the novel, set in Kandy,
Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) are very reminiscent of the comedy of Evelyn Waugh, who
is mentioned more than once in the ‘diaries’ of the gay bon vivant, Beverly
Nichols—another real life character, according to the ‘author’s note’; the real
Beverly Nichols, Taylor informs, was a prolific author, journalist and
librettist—although the tone becomes much more sombre and dark once the action
shifts to London, only to slide, every now and then, into slapstick.
Cynthia Kirkpatrick, the main protagonist of the novel, is a
pleasant enough character, not unduly encumbered by anything by way of
personality. To the extent that Cynthia is able to make up her mind, she is
pro-war. She does play a vital role in unravelling the plans of the anti-war
faction (you expect no less from the main protagonist of the novel), but the
reader gets the feeling that Cynthia does this not so much out of string
political convictions as because of her weak character that makes her
susceptible to the manipulations and machinations of other, strong-willed,
characters. While this is not at odds with how Cynthia is portrayed, it has the
effect of the character not making a lasting impression on your mind. Cynthia,
not to put too fine a point on it, is dull. The supporting characters, Beverly
Nichols and Captain Ramsay, for example, are far more interesting—and for that
reason entertaining—that Cynthia. Tayler’s depiction of Edward is humane
enough. Taylor desists from portraying Edward as a caricature and does not
‘give’ him anti-Semite tendencies, though ‘the king’ comes across as an empty
suit.
Taylor excels in depicting for the reader the London in the
1930s, as Europe stands on the cusp of war (dark, gloomy, grubby, uncertain,
fearful), which, in the end, is the most persuasive portion of this novel about
the ‘phoney war’.
