The Romanovs were one of the most extraordinary families in world history, producing a succession of brilliant yet often dysfunctional rulers whose whims affected the lives of millions. Oliver Thomson delves deep into the dynasty's rise to power from the moment when Anastasia Romanovna was plucked from obscurity to become the wife of the tsar later known as Ivan the Terrible.

He traces the remarkable careers and personal traumas of the Romanov tsars and emperors, larger-than-life characters like Peter I and Catherine the Great, as well as the tragic stories of Paul and Nicholas II.

Including maps, portraits of family members and stunning colour photographs of the main surviving Romanov buildings, this absorbing book charts the rise and fall of one of history's most powerful dynasties and at the same time examines the lives of the often flawed human beings who were part of it.