Miranda Carter

In the years before World War I, the great European powers were ruled by three first cousins: King George V, Kaiser Wilhelm II, and Tsar Nicholas II. Carter uses the cousins' correspondence and a host of historical sources to tell their tragicomic stories.

Three Royal Cousins and the Road to World War I

George, Nicholas and Wilhelm

Investigative team Blake and Avery find themselves entangled in a case involving political conflicts, personal vendettas, and England's first celebrity chef. London, 1842. Captain William Avery is persuaded to investigate a mysterious and horrible death at the Reform, London's newest and grandest gentleman's club--a death the club is desperate to hush up. What he soon discovers is a web of rivalries and hatreds, both personal and political, simmering behind the club's handsome façade. At the center is its resident genius, Alexis Soyer, "the Napoleon of food," a chef whose culinary brilliance is matched only by his talent for self-publicity. But Avery is distracted, for where is his mentor and partner in crime Jeremiah Blake? And what if this first death is only a dress rehearsal for something far more sinister?

The Devil's Feast

In the years before the First World War, the great European powers, Britain, Germany and Russia, were ruled by three cousins: George V, King-Emperor of England, the British Empire and India; Wilhelm II, the last Kaiser; and Nicholas II, the last Tsar. Together, they presided over the last years of dynastic Europe and the outbreak of the most destructive war the world had ever seen, a war which set twentieth century Europe on course to be the most violent continent in the history of the world. Miranda Carter uses the cousins� correspondence and a host of historical sources to tell the tragicomic story of a tiny, glittering, solipsistic world that was often preposterously out of kilter with its times, struggling to stay in command of politics and world events as history overtook it. The Three Emperors is a brilliant and sometimes hilarious portrait of three men � damaged, egotistical Wilhelm, quiet, stubborn Nicholas and anxious, dutiful George � and their lives, foibles and obsessions, from tantrums to uniforms to stamp collecting. It is also alive with fresh, subtle portraits of other familiar figures: Queen Victoria � grandmother to two of them, grandmother-in-law to the third � whose conservatism and bullying obsession with family left a dangerous legacy; and of Edward VII, the playboy �arch-vulgarian� who turned out to have a remarkable gift for international relations and the theatrics of mass politics. At the same time it weaves through their stories a riveting account of the events that led to World War One, showing how the personal and the political interacted, sometimes to devastating effect. For all three men the war would be a disaster which destroyed for ever the illusion of their close family relationships, with any sense of peace and harmony shattered in a final coda of murder, betrayal and abdication.

Three Cousins, Three Empires and the Road to World War One

The Three Emperors

La începutul secolului XX, Marea Britanie, Germania și Rusia erau conduse de trei veri: regele George al V-lea, kaizerul Wilhelm al II-lea și țarul Nicolae al II-lea. Rivalitățile personale și competiția lor pentru întâietate au dus la declanșarea unuia dintre cele mai distructive războaie din toate timpurile, care avea să inaugureze un nou capitol în istoria continentului. Miranda Carter descrie cu umor și acuitate personalitățile celor trei veri și viața de la curțile lor, dar schițează și un tablou al întregii belle époque văzute prin ochii caselor regale, acea belle époque care în 1918 era doar o amintire. Kaizerul a fost silit să abdice și a plecat în exil, iar țarul și copiii săi au fost uciși de revoluționarii bolșevici; singur regele George, cu sănătatea șubrezită, se mai afla în fruntea poporului său sărăcit. Absolutismul monarhic în Europa a luat sfârșit odată cu ei.

Cei trei împăraţi: trei veri, trei imperii şi drumul către Primul Război Mondial

Aan de vooravond van de Eerste Wereldoorlog werden Groot-Brittannië, Duitsland en Rusland geregeerd door drie neven: koning George V, keizer Wilhelm II en de laatste tsaar Nicolaas II. Zij stonden aan het roer van Europa toen de oorlog uitbrak die een einde zou maken aan de macht van de grote dynastieën. Op even subtiele als overtuigende wijze vertelt Miranda Carter in dit boek het verhaal van een kleine, glamoureuze, in zichzelf gekeerde elite die wanhopig probeerde de politieke controle over Europa te behouden. Zij schetst een briljant portret van de beschadigde, verwaande Wilhelm, de stille, koppige Nicolaas en de gretige, dienstbare George. Op basis van de correspondentie tussen de neven en vele andere bronnen geeft zij een kleurrijk beeld van hun levens, zwakheden en obsessies. Ook andere familieleden, zoals de bemoeizuchtige koningin Victoria en playboy Edward VII, worden met veel oog voor detail geportretteerd. Indringend wordt geschetst hoe het persoonlijke en het politieke elkaar beïnvloedden, niet zelden met desastreuze gevolgen. Voor George V, Wilhelm II en Nicolaas II liep de Eerste Wereldoorlog uit op een ramp: in een apotheose van moord, verraad en troonsafstand viel de mythe van vrede en verstand voorgoed in duigen.

De ondergang van het oude Europa

When Anthony Blunt died in 1983, he was a man about whom almost anything could be - and was - said. As Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures and Director of the Courtauld Institute, Blunt's position was assured until his exposure in 1979 left his reputation in tatters. Miranda Carter's brilliantly insightful biography gives us a vivid portrait of a human paradox. Blunt's totally discrete lives, with their permanent contradictions, serve to remind us that there is no one key to any human being's identity: we are all a series of conflicting selves.

His Lives

Anthony Blunt

This brilliant psychological examination of the infamous Cambridge art-historian-turned-spy reveals the multiple masks worn by the Cold War’s most notorious traitor. From young member of the Bloomsbury circle to left-wing intellectual, from closeted homosexual ascending to the Establishment to object of public denunciation by Margaret Thatcher, the arc of Blunt’s life is at once a deeply nuanced account of fifty years in the British power elite and an astonishing history of one of the century’s greatest deceits.

Miranda Carter

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