A vividly recreated story of an unlikely voyage, with its bizarre assortment of warring characters and its priceless cargo of treasures including rolled-up Rembrandts and Faberge eggs.

Welchs biography of Anna Anderson, the mysterious woman who claimed to be the lone survivor of the Russian imperial family, is a tragic comedy in the best Russian tradition--a compelling, eerie, and frequently hilarious study of discipleship, snobbery, and life after death. Illustrated.

This book focuses on the city of St Petersburg, the capital of the Russian empire from the early eighteenth century until the fall of the Romanov dynasty in 1917. It uses the Russian court as a prism through which to view the various cultural changes that were introduced in the city during the eighteenth century.

These are the memoirs of Anna Alexandrovna Vyrubova, a close friend of the last Imperial family of Russia, and aim to set right the many false and invented stories written about Nicholas II and Alexandra and Anna’s relationship with them. The book provides rare descriptions of the home life of the Tsar and his family, vividly portrays her perils in prison and her narrow escape from execution, and recollects the enormous hardship she endured avoiding the Bolsheviks before escaping to Finland in December 1920. A truly fascinating read.

For historical aficionados and curious readers alike, this is the perfect ‘short life’ - gripping and hilariously funny, this biography sheds much-needed light on the life of the Russian icon: Grigory Rasputin. Grigory Rasputin, Siberian peasant-turned-mystic and court sage, was as fascinating as he was unfathomable. He played the role of the simple man, eating with his fingers and boasting, ‘I don’t even know the ABC’. But, as the only person able to relieve the symptoms of hemophilia in the Tsar’s heir Alexei, he gained almost hallowed status within the Imperial court. During the last decade of his life, he and his band of “little ladies” came to symbolize all that was decadent, corrupt and remote about the Imperial Family, especially when it was rumored that he was not only shaping Russian policy during the First World War, but also enjoying an intimate relationship with the Empress... Rasputin’s role in the downfall of the tsarist regime is beyond dispute. But who was he really? Prophet or rascal? A “breath of rank air...who blew away the cobwebs of the Imperial Palace’’, as Beryl Bainbridge put it; or a dangerous deviant? In this riveting and eye-opening short biography, Frances Welch turns her inimitable wry gaze on one of the great mysteries of Russian history.

This book is a memoir written by Pierre Gilliard, the French language tutor to the five children of Emperor Nicholas II of Russia from 1905 to 1918. It was published following the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the execution of the Russian Imperial family. In this book, Gilliard described Tsarina Alexandra's torment over her son's hemophilia and her faith in the ability of starets Grigori Rasputin to heal the boy.