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The Crimson Oak
Peter, a Russian peasant boy, twelve years old in the year 1739 and full of dreams, chances to cross paths with the exiled Princess Elizabeth and comes to realize his fate is linked to hers.
112 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1983
15 people want to read
About the author
E.M. Almedingen
71 books6 followersBritish novelist, biographer and children's author of Russian origin, born Marta Aleksandrovna Almedingen and also known as Martha Edith Almedingen or von Almedingen.
On her mother's side, she was descended from the aristocratic Poltoratsky family; her maternal grandfather was Serge Poltoratzky, the literary scholar and bibliophile who ended his days in exile, shuttling between France and England. His daughter Olga, the novelist's mother, grew up in Kent but was fascinated by her father's native Russia, where she moved in the early 1880s and married Alexander Almedingen, who had turned his back on his family's military traditions to become a scientist. In 1900 he abandoned his family and they lived in increasingly impoverished circumstances, well described in her memoir Tomorrow Will Come, but the author was able to attend the Xenia Institute and eke out a living in the increasingly desperate times of revolution and civil war. She attended Petrograd University and became a lecturer in English and mediaeval history there in the early 1920's.
In September 1922 she managed to get permission to leave the country and went to England, where she became a well-known children's author. In 1941 she won the $5,000 Atlantic Monthly nonfiction prize for Tomorrow Will Come.
She was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1951 and received the Book World Festival award in 1968.
On her mother's side, she was descended from the aristocratic Poltoratsky family; her maternal grandfather was Serge Poltoratzky, the literary scholar and bibliophile who ended his days in exile, shuttling between France and England. His daughter Olga, the novelist's mother, grew up in Kent but was fascinated by her father's native Russia, where she moved in the early 1880s and married Alexander Almedingen, who had turned his back on his family's military traditions to become a scientist. In 1900 he abandoned his family and they lived in increasingly impoverished circumstances, well described in her memoir Tomorrow Will Come, but the author was able to attend the Xenia Institute and eke out a living in the increasingly desperate times of revolution and civil war. She attended Petrograd University and became a lecturer in English and mediaeval history there in the early 1920's.
In September 1922 she managed to get permission to leave the country and went to England, where she became a well-known children's author. In 1941 she won the $5,000 Atlantic Monthly nonfiction prize for Tomorrow Will Come.
She was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1951 and received the Book World Festival award in 1968.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 31, 2026
Good, short historical novel about a 12-year-old serf in tsarist Russia who wants to learn to read, so he can protect his family and village from cheating tax collectors who barely leave them enough to live on, since the serfs can't read the records. The local clergy don't seem to want to teach a peasant boy, so on a rare visit to a city, he hires a clerk to write to the Empress Anna to ask if he might be taught.
His boldness brings down terrible repression on him and he barely lives through it.
Good story of courage and seeking to improve one's lot and that of others.
His boldness brings down terrible repression on him and he barely lives through it.
Good story of courage and seeking to improve one's lot and that of others.
March 7, 2018
A review from when I was a children's librarian. Setting - Russia, 1739. Peter, a peasant boy, meets the Princess Elizabeth (exiled from Moscow) whose life he saves. She later saves his life (after becoming queen) when he is taken by the secret police. This was a wonderful story but probably for historical fiction only.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews