If you like the Romanov Sisters...

We recently read The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra by Helen Rappaport, and found it unputdownable! With that title in mind, a new royal baby in the offing, the recent passing of the Duchess of Devonshire (last of the six Mitford sisters), and the Scottish referendum recently in the news, we thought that now would be a good time for royal readalikes! Here's a few likely non-fiction and fiction titles for the ardent monarchist and followers of famous families throughout history.


Non-Fiction

From Splendor to Revolution: The Romanov Women, 1847-1928 by Julia P. Gelardi

The Duchess by Amanda Foreman

Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Antonia Fraser

Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff

Mary, Queen of Scots, and the Murder of Lord Darnley by Alison Weir

A Circle of Sisters: Alice Kipling, Georgiana Burne-Jones, Agnes Poynter and Louisa Baldwin by Judith Flanders

The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family by Mary S. Lovell

Aristocrats: Caroline, Emily, Louisa, and Sarah Lennox, 1740-1832 by Stella Tillyard

The Last Princess: The Devoted Life of Queen Victoria's Youngest Daughter by Matthew Dennison

We Two: Victoria and Albert - Rulers, Partners, Rivals by Gillian Gill

The Heir Apparent: A Life of Edward VII, The Playboy Prince by Jane Ridley

Not In Front of the Corgis: Secrets of Life Behind the Royal Curtains by Brian Hoey

The Royal Stuarts: A History of the Family That Shaped Britain by Allan Massie

The Sisters Who Would Be Queen: Mary, Katherine, and Lady Jane Grey - A Tudor Tragedy by Leanda de Lisle

The Titled Americans: Three American Sisters and the British Aristocratic World Into Which They Married by Elisabeth Kehoe

Five Sisters: The Langhorne Sisters of Virginia by James Fox  

  

Fiction

The Tsarina's Daughter by Carolly Erickson

Elizabeth I by Margaret George

The Red Queen by Philippa Gregory

Duchess: A Novel of Sarah Churchill by  Susan Holloway Scott

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

The Complete Tudors: Nine Historical Novels by Jean Plaidy [eBook]

The Secret Daughter of the Tsar by Jennifer Laam

Girl on the Golden Coin: A Novel of Frances Stuart by Marci Jefferson


Links

Masterpiece Theatre: Love In a Cold Climate (Mitford Sisters)

BBC Two: Russia's Lost Princesses
  

What to Read While You're Waiting for the Royal Baby to Make an Appearance

Some of us have a fascination, perhaps unhealthy, with the monarchy.  My mom and I got up at 5 a.m. in the 1980s to watch Diana & Charles, & then Andrew & Fergie, get married; we spent part of our vacation in 1997 watching Diana's funeral on TV.  I watched William & Kate get married in 2011 while wearing a fascinator and drinking tea.  So, as you might imagine, I am currently in royal baby mode, anxiously awaiting the arrival of William and Kate's bundle of joy.

However, as of this writing, Kate has settled into her family's house in Bucklebury (doesn't it sound like a town in Tolkien's Shire?) & the world's press, camped outside St Mary's Hospital in London, is just waiting to announce something.  I, of course, am checking the news at least twice a day (at a conservative estimate) to see if the momentous wheels of the royal birth have started turning.  (Seriously!  There's a whole procedure!)

In the meantime, if you are also impatiently waiting for the birth of the royal heir, maybe you'd like to check out some royal reads to distract you.

William and Kate: The Love Story by Christopher Andersen

Prince William: The Man Who Will Be King by Penny Junor

Camilla and Charles: The Love Story by Caroline Graham

After Diana: William, Harry, Charles, and the Royal House of Windsor by Christopher Andersen

A Dress for Diana by David Emanuel & Elizabeth Emanuel

The Real Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait of Queen Elizabeth II by Andrew Marr

Bright Young Royals: Your Guide to the Next Generation of Blue Bloods by Jerramy Fine [eBook]

What Would Grace Do?: How to Live Life in Style Like the Princess of Hollywood by Gina McKinnon

That Woman: The Life of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor by Anne Sebba

Wait For Me!: Memoirs by Deborah Mitford [Dowager Duchess of Devonshire]

Shooting Victoria: Madness, Mayhem, and the Rebirth of the British Monarchy by Paul Thomas Murphy

Serving Victoria: Life in the Royal Household by Kate Hubbard

Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt: The Story of a Daughter and a Mother in the Gilded Age by Amanda Mackenzie Stuart

From Splendor to Revolution: The Romanov Women, 1847-1928 by Julia P. Gelardi

The Kings' Mistresses: The Liberated Lives of Marie Mancini, Princess Colonna, and Her Sister Hortense, Duchess Mazarin by Elizabeth C. Goldsmith

The Women of the Cousins' War: The Duchess, the Queen, and the King's Mother by Philippa Gregory, David Baldwin, Michael Jones

Blood Sisters: The Women Behind the Wars of the Roses by Sarah Gristwood

Queen of the Conqueror: the Life of Matilda, Wife of William I by Tracy Borman

The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England by Dan Jones


If you are crafty, you can while away some time with these:

Knit Your Own Royal Wedding by Fiona Goble

Knit Your Own Dog: Easy-to-Follow Patterns for 25 Pedigree Pooches by Sally Muir & Joanna Osborne (knit a corgi for the royal baby!)