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Cousins Divided
'Cousins Divided' takes a fascinating look at the parallel lives of Tsar Nicholas II and King George V.
After the last Tsar, Nicholas II, was forced to abdicate in the spring of 1917, the British Ambassador to St. Petersburg was instructed to offer sanctuary in Britain to the beleaguered imperial family. But King George V quickly reneged on this invitation and, sixteen months later, the Romanovs were murdered in Siberia. What made the King’s actions even more shocking was the fact that the Tsar was his cousin.
Ann Morrow draws on archival material as well as the memories of the Tsar’s mother and ballerina mistress, grand-dukes and ministers, soldiers and servants, Bolsheviks and diplomats and many more. A lively and entertaining read, 'Cousins Divided' provides a behind-the-scenes look at the courts of Russia and Britain, as well as debating George V’s controversial and fateful decision.
Ann Morrow is a writer and journalist. She was Royal Correspondent for the Daily Telegraph for several years and is the author of several books, including 'Highness: The Maharajahs of India', 'The Queen', 'The Queen Mother', 'Princess' and 'Without Equal'. Born in Ireland, she now lives in London.
After the last Tsar, Nicholas II, was forced to abdicate in the spring of 1917, the British Ambassador to St. Petersburg was instructed to offer sanctuary in Britain to the beleaguered imperial family. But King George V quickly reneged on this invitation and, sixteen months later, the Romanovs were murdered in Siberia. What made the King’s actions even more shocking was the fact that the Tsar was his cousin.
Ann Morrow draws on archival material as well as the memories of the Tsar’s mother and ballerina mistress, grand-dukes and ministers, soldiers and servants, Bolsheviks and diplomats and many more. A lively and entertaining read, 'Cousins Divided' provides a behind-the-scenes look at the courts of Russia and Britain, as well as debating George V’s controversial and fateful decision.
Ann Morrow is a writer and journalist. She was Royal Correspondent for the Daily Telegraph for several years and is the author of several books, including 'Highness: The Maharajahs of India', 'The Queen', 'The Queen Mother', 'Princess' and 'Without Equal'. Born in Ireland, she now lives in London.
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
369 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 23, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 24, 2015
FINALLY finished this book. I did not think it would take me this long. Let's just say it was very slow reading.
The first half of the book was absolutely excruciating. There was little detail in there that I hadn't read before in any book on the Romanovs, or in any general biography on British monarchs. It was extraordinarily slow reading and I kept putting it down and not picking it back up because it was boring as hell.
On the other hand, the details about the fate of the extended Romanov family as well as the last of George V's life was fascinating. I raced through that section in less than an hour. I had hardly read anything in there before -- of George V's feelings on not having saved his cousins and their children, on Nicholas's and Alix's extended families' bitterness towards George V, of the full details of the 1999 burial in St. Petersburg. That was wonderful.
Overall: 5/10, since I liked half of the book and hated the other half.
The first half of the book was absolutely excruciating. There was little detail in there that I hadn't read before in any book on the Romanovs, or in any general biography on British monarchs. It was extraordinarily slow reading and I kept putting it down and not picking it back up because it was boring as hell.
On the other hand, the details about the fate of the extended Romanov family as well as the last of George V's life was fascinating. I raced through that section in less than an hour. I had hardly read anything in there before -- of George V's feelings on not having saved his cousins and their children, on Nicholas's and Alix's extended families' bitterness towards George V, of the full details of the 1999 burial in St. Petersburg. That was wonderful.
Overall: 5/10, since I liked half of the book and hated the other half.
October 17, 2023
Staggeringly bad and mediocre - I could list so many idiotic mistakes but the book isn't worth wasting time on - seriously for two very boring and mediocre monarchs they have attracted a ridiculous amount of attention - at least Nicholas II has the merit to be considered as an astoundingly bad monarch whose idiotic failures doomed both him and his family, but most awfully his country to pain and suffering on an unimaginable scale. As for George V - why bother? he was so boring and limited that only his murder by his doctor makes him interesting.
Bad book about boring people.
Bad book about boring people.
March 25, 2018
Too many errors.
March 3, 2024
Appalling, amateur, mistakes. So many by page 50 that I had to put this down. Morrow is proved to be a most sloppy author desperately in need of an editor that knows literally anything about the period. E.g.: refer to “Leopold of Hesse” and then the same person two paragraphs later (correctly) as “Louis of Hesse”; the “reference to “Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Cambridge” instead of “Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge” complete with footnote for more detail; the reference to the “new Prince of Wales” on the death of Albert Victor and the advancement of Prince George (who would not become Prince of wales until his grandmother died 8 years later….. I could go on, but this kind of slop isn’t serious enough to take seriously.
October 13, 2009
An easy read for anyone who is interested in the English and Russian Royal families. One is left wondering how history could have taken a very different turn if King George V had of allowed Nicholas II and his family safe passage to England.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews