Rasputin and his Russian Queen: The True Story of Grigory and Alexandra

In his new book, Mickey Mayhew reimagines Alexandra for the #MeToo generation, portraying her as a reserved and pious woman who was tossed into the heart of Russian aristocracy to provide an heir. She turned to Grigory Rasputin to cure her son's haemophilia, and their relationship brought down 300 years of Romanov rule and ushered in the Russian Revolution.

Format: Hardback
Length: 224 pages
Publication date: 30 March 2023
Publisher: Pen & Sword Books Ltd

RASPUTIN'S RELATIONSHIP with Russia's last Tsarina, Alexandra, notorious from the famous Boney M song, has never been adequately addressed; biographies are always for one or the other, or simply Alexandra and her husband Nicholas. In this new work, Mickey Mayhew reimagines Alexandra for the #MeToo generation; neurotic, hysterical, credulous, and fanatical are shunted aside in favor of a sympathetic reimagining of a reserved and pious woman tossed into the heart of Russian aristocracy, with the sole purpose of providing their patriarchal monarchy with an heir. When her longed-for son then developed haemophilia, she turned to the one man capable of curing the child's agonizing pain - Grigory Rasputin. Some say that between them, Grigory and Alexandra brought down 300 years of Romanov rule and ushered in the Russian Revolution, but theirs was simply the story of a mother fighting for the health of her son against a backdrop of bigotry, sexism, and increasing secularism. She liked to pray, and he liked to party, but when they found themselves steering Russia through the First World War, her gender and his class gave society no option but to destroy them. Bubbling with his trademark bon mots, Mickey Mayhew's latest book breathes fresh life into two of history's most fascinating - and polarizing - figures. This is the real story of Rasputin and his Russian Queen.

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781399083676