At the dawn of the nineteenth century two great empires met on the far side of the world. Spain was the tired and hidebound colonial master of much of the Americas. Russia was the upstart, hungry for America's Pacific coast, the last great prize left unclaimed after the golden age of exploration. The dream of Nikolai Rezanov, an aristocrat and adventurer, diplomat and courtier, was to transform fur-hunting stations on the Alaskan coast into the hub of a Pacific Empire stretching from Siberia to California. After a harrowing voyage to San Francisco he was captivated by Conchita, the fifteen-year-old daughter of the Spanish Governor and 'the beauty of the Californias'. The two were engaged to be married but Rezanov died on his way back to St Petersburg in 1807 and would never return for his 'angel' - or realise his dreams of a Russian America. A brilliantly original tale of adventure and colonial ambition that reaches from the glittering court of the Tsars into the wilderness of the New World, Nikolai and Conchita traces the untold story of Russia's American Empire through vivid first-hand accounts, state archives and the author's own extensive travels.
