The author clearly has an affinity with his subject: Nicholas II was an incompetent ruler and Mr Radzinsky is an incompetent historian. Before I say another unkind word let me quote from the chapter where he introduces us to Alix of Hesse, the future Tsarina:

‘Hills grown up in forest descended into the misty valley of the Rhine, beloved by Goethe. There lay Darmstadt – at the season of her birth it would have been drowning in flowers, and in the Palace museum hung a Madonna by Hans Holbein.’

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