Rasputin's relationship with Russia's last Tsarina, Alexandra, notorious from the famous Boney M song, has never been adequately addressed; biographies are always for one or the other, or simply Alexandra and her husband Nicholas. In this new work, Mickey Mayhew reimagines Alexandra for the #MeToo generation: 'neurotic'; 'hysterical'; 'credulous' and 'fanatical' are shunted aside in favour of a sympathetic reimagining of a reserved and pious woman tossed into the heart of Russian aristocracy, with the sole purpose of providing their patriarchal monarchy with an heir. When the son she prayed for turns out to be a haemophiliac, she forms a friendship with the one man capable of curing the child's agonising attacks. Some say that between them, Grigori and Alexandra brought down 300 years of Romanov rule and ushered in the Russian Revolution, but theirs was simply the story of a mother fighting for the health of her son against a backdrop of bigotry, sexism and increasing secularism. Bubbling with his trademark bon mots, Mickey Mayhew's new book breathes fresh life into two of history's most fascinating - and polarising - figures. She liked to pray and he liked to party, but when they found themselves steering Russia into the First World War, her gender and his class meant that society simply had to crush them. This is the real story of Rasputin and his Russian queen, Alexandra. AUTHOR: Lifelong Londoner Mickey Mayhew has a PhD concerning the online cult surrounding the 'tragic' queens Anne Boleyn and Mary Queen of Scots. He is co-author of three books relating to Jack the Ripper, published by The History Press. His first non-fiction work, The Little Book of Mary Queen of Scots, was also published by The History Press in January 2015; I Love the Tudors, by Pitkin Publishing, arrived in 2016. He has a semi-regular column in the journal of The Whitechapel Society and was previously a freelance film and theatre reviewer for various London lifestyle magazines. Through 2018/2020 he worked as an assistant researcher on several research projects for London South Bank University. This is his third book for Pen and Sword, following the release of House of Tudor and Imprisoning Mary Queen of Scots. 35 b/w illustrations
