BIOGRAPHY OF EX-KING

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 330, 11 January 1937, Page 5

BIOGRAPHY OF EX-KING

BY HECTOR BOLITHO OUT IN MARCH. Edward Lacked Capacity For Judgment. Press Association—Copyright. London, January 9. The New Zealander, Mr Hector Bolitho, who has won a reputation as a biographer of Royal personages, has written the life of Edward VHI., which will be published on March 18. "The idea of writing the book,” says Mr Bolitho, “came when I accompanied him on his journey through New Zealand. My ‘Lif e of the Prince Consort' gave me the foundation which it is interesting to trace Edward's inheritance of character and to see the conflict between the Coburg sense of duty and the Hanoverian appetite for pleasure. It is astonishing to see how they remained so defined.

"It was easy to like Edward for his lack of humbug, his compassion and fierce sincerity; but these qualities ruined him, because jhis capacity for judgment was not great enough and not serene enough to discipline his emotions. He kept his promise at Carnarvon to be husband to his father’s people, but Tailed in the end—this poisonous end to the srtory. Nevertheless I do not think people realise bis loneliness. He was a great, very great, Prince of Wales.”