Frances Welch is good at conveying the mundanity of court life, although that’s probably not her intention. The author of five previous books about the Romanovs, she shifts her focus here to the four princesses of Hesse — Victoria (1863-1950), Elisabeth, also known as Ella (1864-1918), Irène (1866-1953) and Alexandra or Alix (1872-1918) — who were granddaughters of Queen Victoria. The book is drawn from their letters and diaries, correspondence mostly concerned with the ephemera of everyday life. There’s a bout of chickenpox, some bedbugs, some lost hair ribbons, a sore wisdom tooth. War and revolution take a backseat to gossip and grumbling.
Princess Alice, their mother, the third child of Queen Victoria, died of diphtheria in 1878, when she was just 35. Their father, Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse, who died in 1892, seemed always busy elsewhere. Parenting duties were left mainly to the girls’ nannies, although Queen Victoria interfered when so inclined. “Think of me as your mama,” she told the girls. Since she was not dependable, astute or particularly kind, her mothering was aloof and erratic.
