'An entertaining study of power and personality portrays the strutting absurdity and grotesque glamour of the last emperors on the eve of catastrophe' SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE, FINANCIAL TIMES 'Dazzling' GUARDIAN THREE COUSINS. THREE EMPERORS. AND THE ROAD TO RUIN. As cousins, George V, Kaiser Wilhelm II and the last Tsar Nicholas II should have been friends - but they happened also to rule Europe's three most powerful states. This potent combination together with their own destructive personalities - petty, insecure, bullying, absurdly obsessive (stamp collecting, uniforms) - led not only to their own dramatic fallouts and falls from grace, but also to the outbreak of the First World War. Miranda Carter's riveting account of how three men who should have known better helped bring down an entire world is a gripping story of abdication, betrayal and murder. 'Masterful. Highly readable and well documented' MARGARET MACMILLAN, SPECTOR 'Absorbing. Carter has a good eye for a quote and an ability to bring various personalities to life. A convincing and considerable achievement SARAH BRADFORD, LITERARY REVIEW 'Fascinating. Carter is a gifted storyteller and has written a very readable account' INDEPENDENT 'That these three absurd men could ever have held the fate of Europe in their hands is a fact as hilarious as it is terrifying. I haven't enjoyed a historical biography this much since Lytton Strachey's Victoria' ZADIE SMITH