It would not have been possible to write this book without the help of a large number of people and a variety of institutions and organisations, in several countries. We are grateful to all. We should begin at the beginning by thanking Pauline Gray for her many memories of her grandmother Natasha and, not least, for the invaluable collection of Michaels and Natashas letters, telegrams, papers, and photographs which she generously deposited with the Leeds Russian Archive at the University of Leeds; we also thank Alexandra Majolier Sniith for her recollections other grandmother. No one attempting a study of Michael and Natasha can do so without the Leeds Russian Archive; in our case we were especially fortunate in that the archivist there is Richard Davies, for without him we might not have had a book at all. His enthusiasm, guidance, and friendship has been a constant support and encouragement; his contacts among academics in Russia have opened doors we might otherwise never have known about; his knack of discovering new material in the most obscure places never ceased to astonish us.

Richard Davies was our gateway into the Moscow archives and our introduction to a number of people who have also made the book possible. Dr Aschen Mikoyan, whose grandfather was chairman of the Supreme Soviet, gave up several months other life, and much other nights sleep, to the editing of some 3000 pages of Michaels and Natashas letters in the State Archive of the Russian Federation; as befits one of the outstanding lecturers in Moscow Universitys English Department, she did so brilliantly; without her the book would have been the poorer, for she added substantially to the amount of research possible, some of which might well otherwise have eluded us. In assembling the files, she and we had the advantage of the unfailing detective work ofDr Aleksandr Ushakov. The State Archive of the Russian Federation itself could not have been more helpful: we are immensely grateful to the director, Sergei Mironenko, the deputy director Alya Barkovets, and the historian Vladimir Khrustalev, as well as to the tireless research staff in the depository and reading rooms — Lyubov Tyutyunnik, Vera Khitrova, Nina Semenova, and Nina AbduUaeva; all made it a pleasure to work there. We are also greatly indebted to the efforts of Dr Sergei Romanyuk, who spent days in several other Moscow Archives, uncovering turn-of-the-century files which many thought had vanished.

In St Petersburg, we owe much to Alina Adazhiys persistent research at the Russian State Historical Archive, and to the kindness of Tatyana Koziova and the knowledgeable staff at Gatchina Palace, who gave us access to documents and opened up apartments, not yet fully restored, in which Michael and his family lived during his childhood. At Gatchina they still remember with affection our Grand Duke, or Emperor Michael II as the palace rightly records him in their roll of Romanov Tsars. In Perm, we must thank Madarne T. G. Rozhnova, director of the Diaghilev House Museum, and Elena Soldatkina; Nesta Macdonalds efforts at Perm on our behalf are also greatly appreciated.

Archive research also took us to the United States. Michaels original diaries for 11—18 are in the Malcolm Forbes Collection in New York, and we were able to have them fully translated for the first time. For that we owe our thanks to Margaret Kelly and Mary Ellen Sinko, as well as to the excellent translation work ofJanel Plank of Columbia University. The Hoover Institution at Stanford University is another major research centre for Russian documents, and we received there every help and consideration; our greatest thanks therefore to Carol Leadenharn, Molly MoUoy, and to Viktoria Kats for her translation work. The Hon. Paul llyinsky. Mayor of Palm Beach, Florida, and the son of Grand Duke Dimitri, generously gave us permission to quote from his fathers diaries, and we are also grateful to Leslie Morris at the Houghton Library, Harvard University, where the diaries are deposited, as well as to William Lee who shared with us his research work on them. Prince David Chavchavadze in Washington DC is another to whom we are greatly indebted.

There are many others who helped as we followed Michael and Natasha across Europe. In Vienna, Professor Dr Ferdinand Opil and the staff at the Stadt-und Landesarchiv, in Copenhagen, Hans Berggreen, of the Royal Danish Archives, Ann-Mett Skovsgaard, of the Hotel dAngleterre, and the library staff of the Politiken newspaper; in Switzerland, M. R. de Gunten, of the Hotel du Signal at Chexbres — all deserve our particular thanks. In Paris, our evening in Martine Rumeaus apartment at 11 rue Monsieur was made the more memorable by a chance meeting there with fellow guest Danielle de ManneviUe, who was as astonished to discover that Natasha had spent her last years in the upstairs boxroom (now a bathroom) as we were to discover that Danielle was a great-niece of Natashas first husband, Sergei Mamontov.

In Britain, where Michael and Natasha lived in 191314? d Natasha from 1919 to 1927, we received endless help. We are particularly indebted to Lady Cobbold and the staff at Knebworth House, to the archivists at

Paddockhurst, and to East Sussex Council for their documentation on Snape.

JiU Kelsey, Anne Dimond and Pamela Clark, of the Royal Archives, Windsor, and DrJ. E. 0. Screen and Kate Hallett at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London, have provided invaluable material, and have always been ready to help; Richard Thorntons genealogical expertise has provided vital clues to documentation we might otherwise have missed; Val B. Insley gave us the fascinating letter which Miss Neame wrote to his family from Copenhagen; George Behrend provided us with much detail about train travel in the 19005; Dr Angus Macleod told us everything we needed to know about medicine; we also thank Harrow School for records of Michaels son George, and Cheltenham Ladies College for those on Tata.

There are many institutions to which we owe our thanks, including the Danish Foreign Ministry, the Admiralty library at the Ministry of Defence, London, the Imperial War Museum, the Bank of England public affairs office, the British Meteorological Office, the Royal Geographical Society, the RoUs-Royce Enthusiasts Club, the Royal Opera House archives, Sothebys, the British and FrenchJockey Clubs, Lloyds Register, andJohn Entwhistle, Reuters hbrarian.

We must also offer our greatest thanks to Martin Pearce for his immense contribution in dealing with Russian-language material which has appeared from a variety of sources; Hilary McLellan not only assembled, edited and dealt with all French material, but tramped with us across St Petersburg and Gatchina; she also spent countless hours in reading and discussing early drafts of the book. Finally, our special thanks to Prince Nicholas Romanov for his help and guidance on a variety of matters relating to the Romanovs, for providing access to documents in his possession, and for his patience in dealing with our many questions. Any errors in the book are, of course, entirely our responsibility.