Fictional Books on Rescue and Survival from Ekaterinburg

[Kalafrana]

There's a fairly narrow line between 'letting your personality show' and awful behaviour! Maybe I'm prejudiced because my parents were constantly criticising my 'personality' (though I was actually pretty quiet by comparison with Anastasia!0.

I wonder whether I tend to think of both Marie and Anastasia as silly in part because we hear most about them (Marie at any rate), when they were at a 'silly' phase in their lives, and Anastasia in particular didn't live long enough to grow out of it. My experience with the Combined Cadet Force at a girls' school showed me that girls aged around 13-15 can be extremely silly (we seem to have had a 'critical mass' of very silly girls and the rest seemed to follow their example), but the ones aged 16-18 were more sensible. Unfortunately, I wasn't there long enough to see whether the silliest did indeed settle down as they got older.

As to Alexei, it's a great pity that we don't have much information as to how Irene and Heinrich dealt with their haemophliac son Waldemar (young Heinrich died at four, so rather too early to see how he was turning out).

Ann

[Olga Bernice]

Thank you, Kalafrana. I think that Maria and Anastasia, had they the chance to get in their twenties and thirties, would have matured. They were prisioners in the stage where they were supposed to be maturing, and as children they had been very sheltered. I agree, SOMETIMES Anastasia was a bit awful, but most of the time I think she was clever and her mother and sisters admired her for that. (Unless, of course, it got too far).

[Alixz]

I have been thinking that this whole thread is not actually about the book Devoted Friends by Joe Poyer.  I have been contemplating separating some of the postings out into other threads.

A lot of other books have been discussed here and a lot of information is in here that does not pertain to the original topic.

I have to work on this.

[Olga Bernice]

Or maybe you could change the titile to "Not Very Well Known Fiction Books About The Romanovs" or something like that, anyway, so that way we could fit at least most of the postings? It's always an idea.

[Olga Bernice]

Lovin' the title!

PS. For all you latecomers, it used to be "Devoted Friends by Joe Poyer".

[Ilana]

@Alixz, glad you liked TIME AFTER TIME.  I actually had some correspondence with the author because I enjoyed the history professor protagonist (for obvious reasons) and he felt that the publishers don't give these books a chance these days, hence looking either for self-publishing or smaller ones.  It's a shame.

[Alixz]

I wish they had published his take on Titanic.  It sounds as if it might have been just as interesting.

[Olga Bernice]

Ooooh, the Titanic and the ROmanovs . . . IMO, possibly 2 of the most interesting subjects in history.

[Olga Bernice]

This isn't necessarily "rescue" but has anybody ever read Do You Promise Not To Tell by Mary Jane Clark? In case anybody's interested, it's Mary Higgins Clark's daughter-in-law. It's a mystery about a stolen Faberge egg, and brings up the Romanovs/Russian history quite often. It's a really good read . . . Has anyone else ever read it?

[Ian (UK)]

   I have not read that one but I have now finished Devoted Friends by Joe Poyer. My first impression of this book was not wrong, this is not a pretty novel by any means. Its style is gritty, hard hitting, & the language is downright lewd in places. To those who are easily offended by novels which some may find are disrespectful to the IF, I would say leave this one alone. Also I don't want to sound too protective but I think this is not a book for the younger reader. My verdict is read if you must, but prepare to be shocked ..........very shocked. This is no sentimental love story, and definitely not for sensitive types.

[Olga Bernice]

Tsk, tsk. Terrible, the things some people will do in the name of history! 

[Ian (UK)]

   In all fairness to the author this was written in the 80's, and it is fiction after all. It is an exciting read, though if you are a NAOTMAA enthusiast (as we all are), this will certainly make your blood boil.

[Olga Bernice]

Of course . . . I have no doubt that he is an excellent author . . . but maybe it would have been better for him to have invented a fictional Russian princess/grand duchess? At least then we could read it without smoke coming out of our ears. I mean, certainly it couldn't have been aimed at Romanov enthusiasts . . . if it was, he would have MOST LIKELY taken out some information from N & A and even Anastasia: The Riddle of Anna Anderson. But I am in no way saying that the author is not good . . . I'm sure he is, just not exactly fact-forward.

[Ian (UK)]

My collection so far is .........
-THE TSARINA'S DAUGHTER by Carolly Erickson
-DEVOTED FRIENDS by Joe Poyer
-THE BUCKINGHAM PALACE CONNECTION by Ted Willis
-MY ANASTASIA by Michael Page
-THE HOUSE OF SPECIAL PURPOSE by John Boyne

  The ones that I have most enjoyed are The House of Special Purpose andThe Buckingham Palace Connection and if you are looking for rough tough adventure then Poyer is your man, it starts to get lively after page 100. As for My Anastasia I couldn't really warm to it. It seemed to be more about the rescuer than the rescued & poor Anastasia is just dragged along for the ride. Needless to say his version of Anastasia was not mine, though someone else may have a differing view. The Tsarina's Daughter we all know about & I've stuck the boot in just like everyone else. The problem with doing this is, if we are too hypercritical it may scare away other authors. Romanov survival fiction is difficult & recent events have made it even more so, which is why I was happily surprised by the appearance of The House of Special Purpose in 2009. Long may it continue.

[feodorovna]

HELP PLEASE. Can't recall the title but the story is centred around kent-Hythe and the Romney Marshes. The son of a high ranking naval commander follows in his father's footsteps only to find himself dismissed in disgrace and unable to prove his innocence. He has been set up. All ties with the navy severed he is approached by MI5/6 and trained for a special, highly secret mission. He is flown out to a remote part of Russia where he waits for further orders. Eventually, after several weeks, a makeshift ambulance arrives carrying a very sick woman who he is instructed to escort back to England. A house had been obtained for them somewhere on the Romney Marshes where the rescuer becomes the young womans sole carer.

She never reveals her identity but chooses to be called Anna. She  has amnesia and is suffering with TB so is mostly confined to a daybed but on one ocassion is transferred by ambulance to a sanitorium/spa in Yorkshire which is visited by a minor Royal who she seems to know. She and her rescuer eventually marry, whether for love or convenience, I don't recall, but after a very short time the TB from which she seemed to be recovering, returned and she died. She was buried in Hythe churchyard and her tombstone reveals her as just "Anna." I believe she was thought to be in her early 20s. On the day I visited Hythe it rained so hard that we couldn't get out of the car to go in the church.

Was there any truth in the story, written, if I recall, in the first person. Did a young man devote a few years of his life to a terminally ill highborn Russian woman with amnesia on the instructions of the Secret Service? What ever, it was such a good read back then that I would like to read it again-if only I could recall the title. HELP PLEASE!!!