The Princesses of Hesse were Queen Victoria's four granddaughters and when their mother, Alice, died suddenly, the Queen took an obsessive interest in the marriage prospects of the girls.

Nothing was straightforward but Queen Victoria died before her fears for the girls' spouses were realised as her granddaughters were caught up in the maelstrom of early 20th century Europe.

The youngest sister, Alix, married Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. She was assassinated, along with the rest of her family, in a cellar in Ekaterinburg.

The second, Ella, married the Russian Grand Duke Serge. After he was assassinated, she became a nun, only to be assassinated by the Bolsheviks twenty-four hours after Alix in 1918.

The third, Irene, married the Kaiser's brother, Prince Henry, and was entangled in the 1918 German uprisings.

The eldest sister, Princess Victoria, married Prince Louis Battenberg, and became the mother of Lord Louis Mountbatten and grandmother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

These women and their fates were unfamiliar to me so this book proved a fascinating read. It draws on hundreds of previously unseen letters and the insight these give to the characters and the scope of their daily lives, from the minutiae to the historic events is mesmerising. What's more the style of writing makes it all very accessible and compelling.