A Fatal Passion: The Story of the Uncrowned Last Empress of Russia

Über

Princess Victoria Melita, granddaughter of England's Queen Victoria, is not nearly as well known as her flamboyant sister, Queen Marie of Romania, but she deserves to be. Ducky, as she was known to her family, was a beauty. Pressured as a teenager into a marriage (arranged by Queen Victoria) to her cousin Ernie, Prince of Coburg, the naive princess was for years unaware that her disinterested husband was homosexual. The princess caused a royal scandal when she divorced him and later married her cousin Grand Duke Kirill of Russia. Exile, the death of her daughter, intrigue, the Bolshevik takeover, and a desperate escape from the new Soviet state followed. Sullivan, a feature writer for Twin Circle magazine, has fashioned a fascinating and informative biography of an extraordinary woman.