THE TIMES BOOK OF THE WEEK

Named one of The Telegraph's 'Best Biographies of the Year 2024'. Queen Victoria had forty-two grandchildren but the four Princesses of Hesse were held in her particular favour. After the sudden death of her daughter Alice, Queen Victoria took an obsessive interest in the marriage prospects of the four girls their mother had left behind, hoping this might secure for them a happy future. Each of the young women married into a European dynasty: the Romanovs and the Hohenzollerns of Germany.

However, no one could have foreseen how the maelstrom of the twentieth century would bring tragedy and heartache to each one of them in turn. Drawing on hundreds of previously unseen letters from the sisters as well as from their grandmother Queen Victoria, The Princesses of Hesse takes us on a sweeping journey across the tumultuous landscape of the turn of the century - from the dramas of the Russian Court to the Russian Revolution, and through both World Wars in which the sisters often found themselves on opposing sides.

Both intimate and epic in scope, Frances Welch's biography sheds new light on the four sisters' lives, illuminating a remarkable period of history in the process. Critics have praised the book as 'full of passions, royal peculiarities and misspelt letters...compellingly told' (Christopher Howse, The Daily Telegraph) and noted that 'Welch brings the four princesses vividly to life' (The Times).

'Frances Welch has a gift for bringing royal figures to life, making us care about them and showing us how their stories interweave...this is both a deeply affecting story of four sisters and an informative bit of history' (Ysenda Maxtone Graham, The Spectator).

Pages: 288, Year of Publication: 2021, Dimensions: 16x16cm