The Three Emperors

The Three Emperors by Miranda Carter is the juicy, funny story of the three dysfunctional rulers of Germany, Russia and Great Britain at the turn of the last century, combined with a study of the larger forces around them.

Three cousins. Three Emperors. And the road to ruin.

As cousins, George V, Kaiser Wilhelm II and the last Tsar Nicholas II should have been friends - but they happened also to rule Europes three most powerful states. This potent combination together with their own destructive personalities - petty, insecure, bullying, absurdly obsessive (stamp collecting, uniforms) - led not only to their own dramatic fallouts and falls from grace, but also to the outbreak of the First World War.

Miranda Carters riveting account of how three men who should have known better helped bring down an entire world is a gripping story of abdication, betrayal and murder.

Fascinating. A wonderfully fresh and beautifully choreographed work of historyMail on Sunday

Miranda Carters story is full of vivid quotations...a romp though the palaces of Europe in their last decades before ArmageddonSunday Times

Fascinating. Carter is a gifted storyteller and has written a very readable accountIndependent

That these three absurd men could ever have held the fate of Europe in their hands is a fact as hilarious as it is terrifying. I havent enjoyed a historical biography this much since Lytton Stracheys Victoria Zadie Smith