Cousins looks at the parallel lives of the last Tsar Nicholas II and King George V. First cousins through their mothers and grandsons of Queen Victoria, they believed they had a unique and personal relationship among monarchs. This relationship was put to the test during the Russian Revolution. On 23 April 1917, the British Ambassador to the Imperial Court offered sanctuary to the beleaguered Russian royal family. The survival of the last Tsar was now safely in the hands in the hands of King George V. Or so it seemed. For, at the eleventh hour, fearful of the seeds of revolution spreading to Britain, George reneged on his offer of safe haven. The tragic end of the Romanovs is well known, yet history has been curiously silent about George V's role. Drawing on the memories of, among others, grand-dukes and ministers; Bolsheviks and diplomats; English travellers and the Tsar's mother, this book traces the lives of the cousins from childhood. Was George V right? Would the Tsar's arrival in England have de-stabilised the country? An entertaining and lively read, Cousins will appeal to anyone enthralled by Russian or British history, or the history of the monarchy.