Rasputin: A short life - Hardcover

Welch, Frances

3.19

419 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1780721536 ISBN 13: 9781780721538

Publisher: Short Books Ltd, 2014

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Grigory Rasputin, Siberian peasant-turned-mystic, was both fascinating and unfathomable. As the only person able to relieve the symptoms of haemophilia in the Tsar's heir Alexis, he gained almost hallowed status within the Imperial court. Yet he played the role of the simple man, eating with his fingers and boasting, 'I don't even know the alphabet'.

During the last decade of his life, he and his band of "little ladies" came to symbolise all that was decadent and remote about the Imperial Family - especially when it was rumoured that he was not only shaping Russian policy during the First World War, but also enjoying an intimate relationship with the Tsarina.

Rasputin's role in the downfall of the tsarist regime is beyond dispute. But who was he really? Prophet or rascal?

In this unputdownable short biography - which draws on new material, including an interview with one of the last people alive who actually saw Rasputin, as well as unpublished memoirs, diaries and letters - Frances Welch turns her inimitable wry gaze on one of the great mysteries of Russian history.

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Review:

"In this elegant and insightful short biography, Welch has enormous fun...she has done an excellent job of digging out the kind of telling detail that often gets swamped by the grand political narrative." - Kathryn Hughes, Mail on Sunday

"The book is a delight to read...Frances Welch tells this extraordinary story in the right, clear, sceptical tone. It is subtitled "A Short Life" and published by Short Books. The brevity works." -Charles Moore, The Telegraph

"Frances Welch writes delightfully...in this slender and enjoyable biography, she sets about her search for [Rasputin] with common sense, wry observation and insight." -Orlando Figes, The Sunday Times

"Welch is a mistress of wry description not only in this book but in three other sharply observed works on the Russian court." -Roger Boyes The Times

Further praise for Frances Welch:

"Frances Welch combines historical insight with a novelistic flair for character." --Evening Standard

"Welch writes with a limpid style and cool intelligence." --- George Walden, Sunday Telegraph

"The book is a delight to read...Frances Welch tells this extraordinary story in the right, clear, sceptical tone. It is subtitled "A Short Life" and published by Short Books. The brevity works." -Charles Moore, The Telegraph

"Frances Welch writes delightfully...in this slender and enjoyable biography, she sets about her search for [Rasputin] with common sense, wry observation and insight." -Orlando Figes, The Times

"Welch is a mistress of wry description not only in this book but in three other sharply observed works on the Russian court." - --Roger Boyes The Times

"The book is a delight to read...Frances Welch tells this extraordinary story in the right, clear, sceptical tone. It is subtitled "A Short Life" and published by Short Books. The brevity works." -Charles Moore, The Telegraph

"Frances Welch writes delightfully...in this slender and enjoyable biography, she sets about her search for [Rasputin] with common sense, wry observation and insight." -Orlando Figes, The Sunday Times

"Welch is a mistress of wry description not only in this book but in three other sharply observed works on the Russian court." - --Roger Boyes The Times

"The book is a delight to read...Frances Welch tells this extraordinary story in the right, clear, sceptical tone. It is subtitled "A Short Life" and published by Short Books. The brevity works." -Charles Moore, The Telegraph

"Frances Welch writes delightfully...in this slender and enjoyable biography, she sets about her search for [Rasputin] with common sense, wry observation and insight." -Orlando Figes, The Times

"Welch is a mistress of wry description not only in this book but in three other sharply observed works on the Russian court." - --Roger Boyes The Times

About the Author:

FRANCES WELCH has written for the Sunday Telegraph and Granta. She is author of The Russian Court at Sea (Short Books, 2011), A Romanov Fantasy: Life at the Court of Anna Anderson (Short Books, 2007), The Romanovs & Mr Gibbes (Short Books, 2003) and co-author of Memoirs of a Revolution, Russian Women Remember (Routledge, 1993). She is married to the writer Craig Brown and has two children. She lives in aldeburgh, Suffolk.

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