Ivor Porter, a former SOE agent who was sent to Romania in 1943 to encourage anti-German resistance, and who then experienced – once Romania had changed sides – the nightmare of the Communist coup, is exceptionally well qualified to tell this gripping story of King Michael’s dedication to his ill-starred country. Since the author has such an intimate grasp of the high politics of modern Romania, perhaps a slightly wider focus is in order for the events he describes so well in a book that puts the case for monarchy. 

Michael (or Mihai) of Romania was born in 1921 to Crown Prince Carol and Princess Helen of Greece. Emerging from the Great War as one of the victors, Romania had doubled in size and acquired substantial ethnic minorities outside the Old Kingdom or ‘Regat’. Following the demise of the pro-German