John Curtis Perry

If you’re new to the late Romanovs this book may be a little dense: so many Grand Dukes to keep track of! But if you’ve read several books & know the last 2 generations of the family fairly well, this book is like the richest of chocolate cakes: deliciously dense & full of nothing but goodness. There are amazing, gossipy stories on nearly every other page that fill in so many relationship subtleties (did you know Princess Paley hated Dmitri? Me neither!). This book also brings to life obscurer members of the family that maybe you’ve read of but find hard to place in the family tree. Now, for instance, I know exactly where Uncle Bimbo & Nikolasha belong & I know enough about them that they feel like individuals to me.

The major Romanovs are here too, of course: Nicky, Alex, Minnie, etc., but it’s the material on the lesser known family members that makes this book unlike any Romanov history I’ve read. Highly recommend if you know a bit about the family; don’t recommend as your first or second book on them (probably too confusing).… (altro)