The Romanov Brides

why tell this story?

My novel is a kind of prequel. Like all couples Nicholas and Alexandra, the last tsar and tsarina, had a back story—and this is theirs. I was struck as I researched and wrote about their courtship how they were flawed, as all people are, but essentially well-intentioned. Their world was a narrow one for all its sophistication, and they didn't anticipate the historical forces mustering against them. Or perhaps it's more accurate to say they failed to envision how different the future would be from the past. And, most poignantly, they hadn't understood the risk of hemophilia that Alix carried. Their love blossomed in ignorance of much, but within the intimate realm of a glamorous royal circle, at the center of a grand, imperial Europe that was about to disappear forever. I thought readers would love meeting them, and relish entering their world.

How true is The Romanov Brides?

I’m trained as an historian and a journalist. I followed the same principles with this book as with my first novel, A Most English Princess. When your main characters people who actually lived, I believe it’s important to stick as closely as possible to what is known about them—their appearance, their personalities, their movements, their travels. I use facts as the scaffolding for my story-telling. I never have characters in a location where they were not, or using language that they would not speak. To insure this, I rely on biographies and contemporary accounts, including memoirs. But most importantly, I read the letters my protagonists wrote in order to capture their thinking and the way they expressed themselves. I was lucky when it came to The Romanov Brides that thousands of letters written by and to the protagonists have survived, some quite intimate. This is a gold mine for the historical novelist.

Curious to learn more?

These are the letter collections, memoirs, biographies, and historical accounts I relied on to write The Romanov Brides.

A Lifelong Passion: Nicholas and Alexandra, Their Own Story, compiled by Andrei Maylunas and Sergei Mironenko

Queen Victoria’s Matchmaking by Deborah Cadbury 

Bread of Exile: A Russian Family by Dimitri Oblonsky 

The Life and Death of Ella, Grand Duchess of Russia by Christopher Warwick 

Advice to a Granddaughter: Letters from Queen Victoria to the Princess of Hesse compiled by Richard Hough  

The Correspondence of the Empress Alexandra of Russia with Ernst Ludwig and Eleonore, Grand Duke and Duchess of Hesse, compiled by Petra Kleinpenning   

Dancing in Petersburg: The Memoirs of Mathilde Kschessinska 

The Four Graces: Queen Victoria’s Hessian Granddaughters by Ilana Miller  

Prince Eddy by Andrew Cook 

The Heir Apparent: A Life of Edward VII, the Playboy Prince by Jane Ridley 

Louis and Victoria: The Family History of the Mountbattens by Richard Hough 

From Battenberg to Mountbatten by E.H. Corkage

Queen Victoria’s Youngest Son: The Untold Story of Prince Leopold by Charlotte Zeepvat

The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra by Helen Rappaport 

Little Mother of Russia: A Biography of Empress Marie Feodorovna by Coryne Hall 

The Romanovs by Simon Sebag Montefiore

George, Nicholas and Wilhelm: Three Royal Cousins and the Road to World War I by Miranda Carter