Thrilling news. The kindle Passion of Marie Romanov is #1 Bestselling Russian History Book on Amazon.
And the PAPERBACK is now available also on Amazon
So gratifying after so many years of research and writing, which were so rewarding the work itself was a pleasure. I love immersing myself in the Romanov world and finding new photos, accounts, other books. The archives are so rich. It seems as if everyone connected to the family wrote a memoir after the tragic end. They all fled Russia and published their accounts:
The tutors Pierre Gilliard, Sydney Gibbes,the ladies-in-waiting Lily Dehn, Sophie Buxhoeveden, the close friends Count Benckendorf, Anna Vyrubova and of course there are the books by Nikolai Sokolov who conducted the first forensic study and even the notorious Yakov Yurovsky who commandeered the firing squad ...I relied on the first hand accounts rather than interpretations, and I studied so many photographs and the amazing film footage. The Tsar was one of the very first home movie makers and the family enjoyed evenings with their Victorian equivalent of a 'Home Theatre Entertainment" system...It amazed me to see the girls roller skating on the deck of the yacht and the Tsar skinny dipping!
It is possible to recapture quite a bit of what their lives were really like and the details fascinate me.
