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The Russian Court at Sea

On sale

4th August 2011

Price: £12.99

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Selected: Paperback / ISBN-13: 9781907595707

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On 11th April 1919, less than a year after the assassination of the Romanovs, the British battleship HMS Marlborough left Yalta carrying the Russian Imperial Family into perpetual exile. The Russian Court at Sea vividly recreates this unlikely voyage, with its bizarre assortment of warring characters and its priceless cargo of treasure.

Reviews

Mail on Sunday
A gripping account of the Romanovs' choppy passage into exile. Welch's detective work has produced a book that is wonderfully witty and sad by turns.
Spectator
The book's readability and telling use of detail are splendid.
Sunday Times
A quirky and gripping vignette of 20th-century Russian history.
Mail on Sunday
A gripping account of the Romanovs choppy passage into exile. Welch s detective work has produced a book that is wonderfully witty and sad by turns.
Sunday Telegraph
Yes, it's been told before, but the 1919 exile of the Romanov family from Russia, in which they sailed on HMS Marlborough, is a splendidly exotic story that is well worth another airing; and Frances Welsh does it grippingly here, with lots of details I hadn't come across before. I loved to read of the goods they brought with them, including rolled-up Rembrandt paintings, Faberge eggs and other treasures of the sort. What a pilgrimage, to be sure.
The Irish Times
A fascinating, poignant portrait of a bizarre collection of people caught up in the chaos of their exodus"
Lancashire Evening Post
A voyage of delight - revealing, fascinating and by turns shocking and amusing - a story so extraordinary that it reads like a novel.
Evening Standard
Brooks gets inside the head, explains how the brain works... it's like frieze-framing a novel and discussing the motivation of the characters. It's fascinating...