Something to listen to / download. The excellent Wild East Radio 4 series – Martin Sixsmith
And something to listen to. Click here to read The Guardian’s review of Robert Service’s Last of the Tsars
“Service takes pains over his tsar, presenting a fastidious Nicholas, a nervous man of simple tastes who liked to dine on beetroot soup, not stuffed peacocks and caviar. He constantly put duty first, but lacked the flexibility of mind to steer his country in a crisis, let alone the first world war. “His actions,” Service concludes, “were those of a ruler who always thought he was right.” That stubbornness would blind him to his people’s suffering and growing rage. Even as he signed his abdication papers he dreamed that his future might resemble an extended Crimean holiday, complete with family and faithful staff…”
I have a copy if anyone wants to borrow it.
Mr Kydd.
