The Three Emperors

Carter’s strength is her inexhaustible enthusiasm for those doomed and fascinating figures… All this, together with the social whirl that surrounded them, Carter has recreated brilliantly, in a book which is at once entertaining and deeply sad… This is history at its most entertaining, full of scathing and often witty descriptions of the follies and tragedies of royalty, and the way in which the three royal cousins’ lives, despite the deep social divide between the royals and ordinary people, became intertwined with the changes and the dangers confronting the major European powers in the early years of the 20th century. It is a splendid picture, splendidly narrated.

Michael Korda · Daily Beast

In her group biography of three monarchs, Carter has succeeded in painting their personalities in vivid colours… she brings an excellent biographer’s eye for the telling detail… the great appeal of this book lies in its narration and comparative analysis of the life and personality of her imperial subjects… well-researched and expertly written… an engaging and remarkably even-handed portrayal

Times Literary Supplement

The parallel, interrelated lives of Kaiser Wilhelm II, George V, and Nicholas II are… a prism though which to tell the march to the first World War, the creation of the modern industrial world and the follies of hereditary courts and the eccentricities of their royal trans-European cousinhood… An entertaining and accessible study of power and personality.

Simon Sebag Montefiore · Financial Times

I couldn’t put this book down. The whole thing really lives and breathes—and it’s very funny. 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 haven’t enjoyed a historical biography this much since Lytton Strachey’s Victoria.

Zadie Smith

Some wars are inevitable. Others, such as World War I, could have been avoided… Relying on apt quotations and instructive anecdotes, Carter, in this always readable history, persuasively relates [the cousins’] role in beginning a war that was supposed to end all wars.

Richmond Times Dispatch

Engrossing and important… While keeping her focus on the three cousins and their extended families, [Carter] skillfully interweaves and summarizes all important elements of how the war came about… An original book, highly recommended.

Dallas Morning News

An irresistibly entertaining and illuminating chronicle… Readers with fond memories of Robert Massie and Barbara Tuchman can expect similar pleasures in this witty, shrewd examination of the twilight of the great European monarchies.

Publishers Weekly

Masterfully crafted… Carter has presented one of the most cohesive explorations of the dying days of European royalty and the coming of political modernity… [She] has delivered another gem.

BookPage

A fascinating biographical saga… The personal, hidden history of King George V, Tsar Nicholas II and Kaiser Wilhelm II’s relationship [is] incomparable, haunting and unforgettable.

Providence Journal

Carter draws masterful portraits of her subjects and tells the complicated story of Europe’s failing international relations well… A highly readable and well-documented account.

Spectator

Carter draws masterful portraits of her subjects and tells the complicated story of Europe’s failing international relations well… A highly readable and well-documented account.

Spectator

What a book this is… In The Three Emperors, Ms. Carter has given us amazing character studies of the men at the helm in the 1900s and how they shaped the world we live in today.

Liz Smith

Carter’s intelligent, entertaining and informative book folds dynastic and political narratives into a panoramic account of Europe’s road to war

London Review of Books

Fresh and enjoyable… Carter’s thoughtful reintroduction of the vividly human to late 19th-century international politics is timely and welcome.

Guardian

Fresh and enjoyable… Carter’s thoughtful reintroduction of the vividly human to late 19th-century international politics is timely and welcome.

Guardian

History on a large canvas… Carter writes incisively about the overlapping events that led to the Great War and changed the world… Impressive.

New York Times

Miranda Carter’s story is full of vivid quotations… a romp though the palaces of Europe in their last decades before Armageddon.

Sunday Times

Carter deftly interpolates history with psychobiography to provide a damning indictment of monarchy in all its forms.

Will Self · New Statesman

Splendid… This is history on a vast scale written on an intimate level, and it is immensely rewarding.

Minneapolis Star Tribune

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

Independent

Entertaining and well-researched, with acute pen portraits of the major players.

Wall Street Journal

Fascinating. A wonderfully fresh and beautifully choreographed work of history.

Craig Brown · Mail on Sunday