[issybird]

I’’m going into the last few hours of Michael and Natasha by Rosemary Crawford, narrated by Nadia May. It’s an account of the life of Tsar Nicholas II’s younger brother, who was nominally and briefly tsar after Nicholas abdicated in 1917.

It’s been something of a mixed bag for me. The hook is Michael’s great romance with and morganatic marriage to the twice-divorced Natasha. But while the book features stellar research and is always interesting, it’s too repetitive in the first half. The letters of the two are copiously quoted and are constant exchanges of, “oh, I love you so much but you no longer love me.” The narrative really only cranks up with the start of the Great War and not coincidentally pays much less attention to Natasha.

Also, while I generally think Nadia May is wonderful, her pronunciations of names leaves much to be desired here. While the text goes with English usage and she mostly observes that, she gives an odd twist to certain names. Particularly irritating is the way she pronounces “George” (name of Michael’s and Natasha’s son) as “zhorzh” What’s that? It’s neither the English nor Russian pronunciation, and while it approximates French the spelling in the text is “George” and not “Georges” which would justify it. Also grating is how she pronounces “Nabokov”, the father of the author who plays a key role.

But I’ve been enjoying it for all that. However, it’s 18 hours so unless someone’s got a particular interest in the Great War, the Russian Revolution or royal tittletattle, it might be too much of a commitment. And as for the last of these, what is it with royals and inappropriate amours?