When they took everything from her, they didn't count on her fighting to get it back ... Born into the House of Romanov to the all-powerful Peter the Great and Catherine I, beautiful Tsarevna Elizabeth is the world's loveliest Princess and the envy of the Russian empire. Insulated by luxury and as a woman free from the burden of statecraft, Elizabeth is seemingly born to pursue her passions. However, a dark prophecy predicts her fate as inexorably twined with Russia. When her mother dies, ...

Bloomsbury presents The Falling Thread by Adam O'Riordan, read by Anna Krippa.Exquisite' Financial Times'Funny and moving, full of surprises and challenging ideas' Times Literary Supplement'Deeply satisfying' Guardian'O’Riordan imbues his narrative with an acutely modern awareness of power and capitalism’ The Times__________________Manchester, the summer of 1890. A city humming with industry and gleaming with affluence.But for Charles,...

Spring 1690: Illegitimate and destitute and strikingly beautiful, Marta has survived the brutal Russian winter in her remote Baltic village. Sold by her family into household labour at the age of 15, Marta befriends a maid who kills herself after being repeatedly raped by their master. The next night, he comes for her. A world away, Russia’s new ruler, Peter the Great, passionate and iron-willed, has a vision for transforming the traditionalist Tsardom of Russia into a modern, Western empi...