Wearing an elegant cream suit and American accent, almost remnant of Wallis Simpson, historian Jane admitted to The Oldie audience of the huge challenges, facing her when writing about Edward VIII.

"There is no denying that the material I presented in Once A King paints a very different portrait of Edward VIII than the one that we have in recent years become all too familiar with" - a monarch with selfish ambitions and Nazi sympathies. When the Duchess died in 1986, a "suffering narrative has prevented a balanced understanding of Edward VIII."

She confessed to being "clearly very much a newbie, not very much an oldie!"

Jane announced: "I am no idealist, but I recognise that one book, however startling, will not overturn decades of judgements about this most controversial of British royals".