Alix and Nicky: The Passion of the Last Tsar and Tsarina

The last Tsar of Russia and his wife -- to some the innocent victims of Bolshevik assassins, venerated as saints and martyrs; to others, the decadent harbingers of revolution and imperial collapse, blamed for many of the ills that befell the Russian people in the twentieth century. There are few characters in history who have divided opinion quite like the Romanovs, but whatever else is said of Tsar Nicholas and the Empress Alexandra, there can be no doubt that they adored one another. Theirs was a tragic love story. Soon after the engagement, Alix wrote in her fiancs diary: 'Ever true and ever loving, faithful, pure and strong as death' -- words which would be fulfilled twenty-four years later in a blood-spattered cellar in Ekaterinburg. Now, through the letters and diaries written by the royal couple and those around them, Virginia Rounding presents an intimate, penetrating and fresh portrayal of these two complex figures and of their passion, their love and their suffering. She brings these characters to life in all their human dimensions, expertly leading the reader into the vanished world of the Romanovs.