Q&A with Clare McHugh

 

 

 

Clare McHugh is the author of the new historical novel The Romanov Brides. She also has written the historical novel A Most English Princess. She lives in London and in Amagansett, New York.

 

Q: What inspired you to focus on the last tsarina of Russia and her sisters in this new novel?

 

A: I’m a sucker for a prequel when it comes to historical stories. We often learn how things end—and in the case of Alexandra, the last empress of Russia, it was a terrible, tragic ending—but the origin of events gets less attention.

 

Lost to time are the chance encounters and the private decisions that seem like not such a big deal in the moment, but end up having a huge impact on the way matters play out.

 

In the case of the princesses of Hesse-Darmstadt—Alexandra and her three sisters, including Ella who was also murdered by the Bolsheviks in July 1918—the tale naturally begins with the death of their mother when they were all quite young. Alexandra (called Alix) was only 6.

 

Left to their own devices, the sisters defied the expectations of their grandmother, Queen Victoria, to marry men they loved. Ella chose the aloof and artistic Grand Duke Serge, brother of the tsar, and it was at their wedding that 12-year-old Alix met Serge’s nephew, 16-year-old heir to the Russian throne, Nicky. And the rest is, as they say, history.

 

Q: How did you research the book, and what did you learn that especially surprised you?

 

A: Letters, diaries, and memoirs are the most valuable sources when it comes to writing historical fiction. And I was lucky with The Romanov Brides: I found that a good amount of these vital primary materials relevant to my characters had been published or was otherwise accessible.

 

I was especially touched to come across childhood letters between Alix and her brother Ernie, which they wrote to each other while confined to bed in separate rooms, recovering from diphtheria, the disease that killed their mother. I was able to integrate the spirit of this correspondence, and some key phrases, into my first chapter.

 

I was also delighted to come across a couple of first-hand accounts of Alix’s winter visit in 1889 to St Petersburg included in Dimitri Obolensky’s terrific family memoir, The Bread of Exile. There I learned many details of why members of Nicky’s inner circle had serious doubts about Alix as his future bride.

 

But love is a curious thing, as we all know. Nicky defied the nay-sayers and insisted on marrying her, setting up the Russian monarchy for serious challenges once his father died and he became tsar at the terribly young age of 26.

Q: The writer Mariah Fredericks said of the book, “Clare McHugh is a genius at finding new dramatic narratives in the history of Queen Victoria's tragic descendants...” How do you see this story fitting in with that of your previous novel, A Most English Princess?

 

A: Like all large clans, Queen Victoria’s family was full of different characters: the shining stars, the black sheep, the beauties, and the rascals. And at the center of the whole interwoven network is the remarkable, diminutive, strong-willed Queen.

 

I longed to return to this “cast” to write a second book, because I had learned so much about them and I found readers were curious to know more about their lives and fates.

 

But while A Most English Princess was fundamentally a political story, centered on the clash of visions for the future of Germany, for a new book I chose to focus on the Hesse sisters so I could tell a more romantic and personal tale.

 

Princesses have a great deal of status and glamour—it’s no surprise little girls want to grow up and be princesses. But the reality, of course, is something else, and especially in the 19th century royal women had very little agency. Their crucial expression of free will, was, if they were lucky, their choice of husband.

 

The Hesse princesses felt strongly that they would be true to their hearts, and make love matches. What they didn’t know about the world proved to be part of their undoing, although they were also very unlucky.

 

I think this reality—beauty and status on one hand—and cruel fate and naivete on the other, makes the story a touching and memorable one.

 

Q: How would you describe the relationship between Queen Victoria and her grandchildren?

 

A: Although the queen despaired that her grandchildren were appearing at such a rapid rate her children “seemed to me to go on like the rabbits in Windsor Park,” she grew fonder of these offspring as they matured out of babyhood.

 

She took a keen interest in who they married, and how they lived. She dispensed to them sensible advice through her letters, and all her grandchildren did well to heed what she had to say.

 

I fear that Alix, as tsarina of Russia, was too quick to dismiss her grandmother’s views. When the queen wrote to confess how each day she worried about retaining her people’s love and respect, and hoped that Alix did likewise, her granddaughter dismissed this out of hand.

 

“Here we do not need to earn the love of the people. The Russian people revere their Tsar,” Alix wrote. The empress  displays with these words the fatal arrogance and willfulness which did so much to hurt her reputation with ordinary Russians.

 

Had Alix chosen to closely emulate her grandmother her life course would have been different and likely far happier.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I imagine that one day I will return to the family of Queen Victoria—there are several other stories worth telling! But for now, I’ve given myself the challenge of writing a novel set in an era I remember: 1970s and 1980s New York.

 

And while inspired by real events, this novel will not tell of the stories of people who actually lived. (Nor is there a single royal person in this nascent book.)

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I’m biased. I think good historical fiction is one of the best ways not only to learn about the past, and to experience how it felt to live through challenging times, but to consider great political and moral questions.

 

It’s been terrific to see a resurgence in the popularity of historical fiction in the 21st century, thanks in part to Hilary Mantel’s Cromwell trilogy, All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, and books by wonderful novelists including Kate Atkinson, Maggie O’Farrell, and Geraldine Brooks.

 

I tell everyone: Despairing of current events? Stop scrolling, put down your phone, and instead pick up a fine historical novel. The best ones entertain, inform, and provide valuable perspective on the kind of difficulties the world still faces.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Clare McHugh.