The King's Speech

The movie, which stars Colin Firth as George V, Helena Bonham Carter as Queen Elizabeth and Geoffrey Rush as Lionel Logue, opened recently in New York and Los Angeles.  

The King's Speech will open in selected cities on December 10.

http://kingsspeech.com/

Christmas cards

This is a great site for Christmas cards!  

http://sophie-de-roumanie.artistwebsites.com/

Andrew Morton jumps royal wedding bandwagon

Andrew Morton is "already at work" on a book "with a team of researchers" on the forthcoming marriage of Prince William of Wales and Miss Catherine Middleton.  William and Kate will be published by Michael O'Mara.
The book will be published within days of the wedding and will be "both a celebration and a memento" of the ceremony.  Photographs of the wedding will be included in the book.
It is unlikely that Prince William will welcome Morton's attention, as it was Morton, with Diana's "covert assistance" who was the author of Diana: Her True Story.
Clarence House had not comment other than to say it was "not a book that has been endorsed."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/nov/18/prince-william-kate-middleton-morton

It's official: Prince William to marry Catherine Middleton

Tomorrow is here.  I have been saying that the engagement would be announced betweeen "tomorrow" and next March!  

Clarence House announced the engagement today of Prince William and Catherine Elizabeth Middleton.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/theroyalfamily/8136599/Royal-wedding-Prince-William-to-marry-Kate-Middleton-next-year.html

I just woke up, and turned on the Today Show, and stared at it for a few moments before it sunk in!

A really lovely book on the Habsburg

A friend sent me Habsburg eine europäische familie im 21sten Jahrhundert, a German-language book with lots of photos.
The title translates to Habsburg - a European family in the 21st century.

The text of the book was written by several Habsburg experts, including Eva Demmerle (who has also written a biography of Archduke Otto) and Rainhard Kloucek.  The book is divided into nine chapters on the history of the family and on different members, including Archduke Otto, the funeral of Archduke Carl Ludwig,  Archduke Karl, the Pan Europa movement, Archduchess Walburga, who is a member of the Swedish Parliament, the confirmation of  Carla and Justin Dantin, Santiagode Casanova, Archduchess Eleonore and Count Moritz Douglas, Archduchess Gabriella, a sculptor who serves as Georgia's ambassador to Germany, and Archduke Georg, who lives in Hungary with his wife, Elika and their three children.  The final chapter is a photographic display of the marriage of Count Philipp von Neipperg (son of Archduchess Andrea) and Paula Wolff, whose mother, Countess Ladislaja von Meran, has Habsburg ancestry.
The limited text is in German.
This is a book of recent photos of Otto and his children and their families.  The book includes a series of interviews with Archduke Otto, Archduke Karl, Archduchess Francesca, Archduchess Walburga, Archduchess Gabriella, a gifted sculptor who acquired Georgian nationality, and now serves as that country's ambassador to Germany, and Archduke Georg, who has settled with his family in a spacious home outside Budapest.

This is a magnificent book dedicated to the current members of the Habsburg dynasty.   If the Austro-Hungarian monarchy had not collapsed in 1918,  Archduke Otto might now be Europe's longest reigning sovereign.   Amazing to think.   He remains dedicated to the cause of a Pan Europa, and his children and grandchildren have taken up the cudgels, and continuing his work. 

This book is not easy to find.  It is not currently available through Amazon.de. It may be a difficult adventure to acquire the book, but it will be well worth it. 

http://www.buchhandel.de/detailansicht.aspx?isbn=978-3-200-01589-0. 

 The price of the book is 50 Euros.

The Grand Dukes

Let's just say I am not a very patient person.  I've been waiting for several years for the publication of The Grand Dukes by Eurohistory.com.  Suffice to say, I have a vested interest in the book as I wrote the article on Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovitch.  In fact, I wrote the chapter several years ago.
The book has been finally published ... well, sort of.  The publisher and editor, Art Beeche, decided to published The Grand Dukes in two volumes.  The first volume, which was released earlier this month,  focuses on the sons and grandsons of Russia's Tsars since Paul.  
My Grand Duke was a great-grandson of a Tsar, which means my chapter will be published in the second volume, due out toward the end of the year.  Yea!

The contributors for both volumes are Janet Ashton, Arturo E. Beeche, Zoia Belyakova, Lisa Davidson, Coryne Hall, Ilana Miller, Greg King, Marlene Eilers Koenig, William Lee and John van der Kiste.  Charles Stewart wrote the introduction.

The first volume has 38 pages of illustrations.


  http://www.amazon.com/Grand-Dukes-Grandsons-Russias-Tsars/dp/0977196186/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1289705551&sr=1-2

Eurohistory.com also published The Grand Duchesses -- a definite must have!
http://www.amazon.com/Grand-Duchesses-Daughters-Granddaughters-Russias/dp/0977196119/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

The Romanovs in the 21st Century

Daniel Willis -- I call him Dan -- is a friend.  We share a common interest in royal genealogy.  He has tacked several major projects, including The Descendants of George I, The Descendants of Louis XIII and The Descendants of Maria Theresia of Austria.   His most recent book, which was published in 2009, but still available, focuses on a more modern line:  The Romanovs in the 21st Century A Genealogical Biography.  
Nicholas I is the progenitor for all the modern Romanov descendants: from sovereigns and consorts to models, photographers, actors and school teachers.
Most of the modern descendants of Nicholas I are not well known, and live largely ordinary lives in the United States, Canada and Australia. 
Dan, who lives in Denver, Colorado, did a lot of research to update and enhance the Romanov genealogy, especially filling in many (but not all) of the blanks, especially for the lesser known non-royal descendants.  He also provides good background information on what many of these descendants do for a living - and where they live.  One story is rather sad.
Nicholas Romanoff, known as Nick, born in 1968, was the grandson of Prince Rostislav Alexandrovich of Russia by his second wife, Alice,  Nick, nor his father, Nicholas, grew up knowing very little about their imperial heritage.  Nicholas was abandoned by his father, who went to live in England, and never returned, when he was a small child. He died in 2000 from complications suffered in a car accident.  
Young Nick, who lies in San Diego, has been married and divorced twice.  He had a son, Cory Christopher, born in 1994, by his first wife, Lisa.   After their divorce, she moved with Cory and her boyfriend, Richard Tiarks, to Memphis, Tennessee. On January 5, 1998, Tiarks killed the little boy, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. 
This book was published in German print on demand publishing firm VDM (Verlag Dr. Müller.)  The book is in English.   The book includes a small number of very small illustrations.  The print for the genealogy is what we describe as "fine print."  Seriously, some readers might need a magnifying glass.

The Romanovs in the 21st Century won't be found at your local bookstore or even through Amazon or Amazon.co.uk.   You can order the book from Amazon. de.

http://www.amazon.de/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?__mk_de_DE=%C5M%C5Z%D5%D1&url=search-alias%3Denglish-books&field-keywords=the+romanovs+in+the+21st+century

The price of the book is a rather pricey 68 Euros (plus postage.)  However, I see this book as an investment because there is not a lot of information on more recent Romanov descendants.    I personally think this book is a must have!  One little quibble -- the index is a bit convoluted as the page numbers do not always correspond to the actual text.