Books by Carolly Erickson

Den legendariske historie om Frankrigs mest berygtede dronning og hendes sørgelige skæbneAftenen inden Marie Antoinette skal halshugges i guillotinen, efterlader hun i sin fængselscelle en hemmelig dagbog, der fortæller hendes livshistorie. Læseren tages med dybt ind i sindet på Frankrigs dødsdømte dronning med en hidtil uset medfølelse og skarpsindighed. Lige fra den privilegerede opvækst som østrigsk ærkehertuginde, gennem den glamourøse tilværelse i Versailles, til hendes hjerteskærende indespærring og ydmygelse under den franske revolution.Vi oplever Marie Antoinettes kærlighedsaffære med den smukke, svenske diplomat Axel Fersen, der risikerede sit liv for at redde hende. Vi oplever hendes mareridt den skæbnesvangre nat hvor den parisiske pøbel brød ind i paladsets soveværelse, for at myrde hende og hendes familie. Vi er med under hendes flugtforsøg fra Frankrig, hendes tilfangetagelse, og i de frygtelige måneder i fangenskab. Vi mærker smerten, da hendes elskede mand bliver halshugget og deres unge søn bliver revet ud af hendes arme, for aldrig at blive set igen …Copyright @ 2005 by Carolly EricksonPublished by agreement with Sanford J. Greenburger Associates, Inc. and Licht & Burr Literary Agency, DenmarkOversat af Marie Kopp fra The Hidden Diary of Marie AntoinetteMarie Antoinette, dronning, Louis XVI, konge af Frankrig, 1700-1799, Frankrig, historie, dronninger, biografiske romaner, kærlighed, den franske revolution

In Lilibet, master biographer Carolly Erickson turns her skill at writing un-put-downable narrative to telling the remarkable story of Elizabeth II, Queen of England.With her customary psychological insight, historian Erickson traces the queen's gilded but often thorny path from her overprotected girlhood to her ascension to the throne at twenty-five to her personal and national difficulties as queen.Lilibet shows us an Elizabeth we thought we knew-but shows her in a different light: as a small, shy woman with a sly and at times raucous sense of humor, a woman who appears stiff in public, but in private enjoys watching wrestling on TV. A woman most at home among her horses and dogs. And a woman long annealed to heartbreak and sorrow, who has presided over the decline of Great Britain and the decline in prestige of her own Windsor dynasty.Far from being a light, gossipy treatment of a celebrity, Lilibet tells the queen's story from her point of view, letting the reader relive Elizabeth's long and eventful life with all its splendid ceremonies, momentous responsibilities and family clashes. Through it all we glimpse, as never before, the strong and appealing sovereign who has ruled over her people for half a century and more, a ruler of immense wealth, international esteem and high character whose daily life is grounded in the bedrock of common sense.

The lives and deaths of the Romanov family are redolent with colour and drama, but the personal life of the beautiful Tsarina Alexandra has remained enigmatic. Under Erickson's masterful scrutiny the full dimensions of the Empress's singular psychology are revealed: her childhood bereavement, her long struggle to attain her romantic goal of marriage to her handsome cousin Nicholas, anguishing shyness, the struggles with her in-laws, a false pregnancy, her increasing eccentricities as she became more preoccupied with matters of faith, and her growing dependence on a series of occult mentors, the most notorious of whom was Rasputin. With meticulous care, long-practised skill, and generous imagination, Erickson has brought Alexandra and her family back to life. Taking advantage of material unavailable until the fall of the Soviet Union, Erickson portrays Alexandra's story as a closely observed, enthrallingly documented, progressive psychological retreat from reality.