This sweeping new novel from the internationally bestselling author of The Woman Before Wallis takes readers behind palace walls to see the end of Imperial Russia through the eyes of Olga Romanov, the first daughter of the last Tsar.
We chat with Bryn Turnbull all about her new release The Last Grand Duchess, along with writing, book recommendations, and more.
Hi, Bryn! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Thanks so much for inviting me to chat with you! To tell you a bit about myself, I’m a Toronto girl, born and raised, and despite my efforts to the contrary I’m a writer, born and raised too. Prior to writing my first novel I worked in corporate communications, but I became a full-time author when I came across Thelma Furness, who became the protagonist of my first novel, The Woman Before Wallis. I’m happiest when I’m outdoors, I adore traveling, and I live with my puppy Edie, who I’m not entirely convinced isn’t a reincarnation of Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon.
How has the first month of 2022 been for you?
Between a new puppy, the ongoing pandemic, an impending book launch, another book in development, a broken hand, and the arrival of my first niece, it’s been somewhat hectic… but I enjoy hectic. It’s certainly preferable to the alternative!
When did you first discover your love for writing?
I’ve been a writer pretty much from the get-go, as my long-suffering parents can attest to – I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t scribbling stories on the backs of napkins or in the margins of my textbooks. I’ve always loved storytelling in all its formats, but the first time I knew I might have an audience was when I gained something of a reputation for my fireside stories when I was a camp counsellor: I’d end up telling sagas about the Loch Ness Monster that lasted four nights in a row, or come up with sequels about what happened to Disney princesses after the credits rolled.
Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!
The first book I ever remember reading, and I’m not kidding, was called The Magic Toybox – I’m sure it’s long out of print as it was ancient in the early nineties, and my gran did most of the reading, but I made her teach me how to read it one summer because I was convinced that all the other kids going into first grade that September would already be reading chapter books. The one that made me want to become an author was The Sky is Falling, by Kit Pearson – I read it when I was about ten or eleven, it was about child evacuees to Canada during the Second World War, and I read it until the covers fell apart. A book that I absolutely adore and can’t stop thinking about is The Library of Legends, by Janie Chang – it tells the real-life story of the evacuation of Nanking’s university students, threading through elements of magical realism through the books the students carried… it’s a truly special read.
Your new novel, The Last Grand Duchess, is out February 8th! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Opulent, tragic, passionate, turbulent, bildungsroman.
What can readers expect?
This book recounts the fall of the Romanovs as witnessed by Olga, eldest daughter of Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna. While many novels centering on the last days of the Romanovs focus either on Alexandra’s relationship with Rasputin, or on one of the many Anastasia pretenders that cropped up in the years following the Russian revolution, I wanted to write a book about the Romanovs that centered on who they were as people – not as royal figures or political victims, but as a family.
Where did the inspiration for The Last Grand Duchess come from?
I’ve always been fascinated by the story of the Romanovs, but had never really considered the daughters on their own merits before: so often in the history books, Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia are viewed as a unit (known as OTMA) rather than as individuals. They’re also referred to as “children” in popular culture, when in fact they were young women when they died: Olga, for example, was 23 years old. All of this is a roundabout way of saying that I’d never given much thought to who they were beyond the popular image of them as sheltered princesses, until I watched a documentary which referenced a documented historical moment where Olga remarked that she understood why Rasputin had to be assassinated. That really stuck with me, and made me realize that Olga was much more was politically aware, and cognizant of the precarious situation her family was in, than I’d previously given her credit for.
Can you tell us a bit about the challenges you faced while writing and how you were able to overcome them?
One of the biggest challenges, no surprise, was the pandemic itself. Toronto had the longest sustained covid-19 lockdown in the world, and that degree of isolation was incredibly wearing – and not exactly conducive to creative thought. That said, there was a silver lining of sorts: half of the book takes place when Olga and her family are under house arrest, and while the lockdown in no way resembled what the family went through, I think it gave me a deeper understanding of the monotony and uncertainty of what their days must have been like.
Were there any favourite moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
The character of Dmitri Pavlovich really spoke to me. I found his character arc the most interesting to write, going from someone who lives in the heart of imperial life to one of the people who destroys it from within.
Can you tell us a bit about your research process for The Last Grand Duchess?
For me, setting is such an important part of writing a historical novel, so I love being able to visit the locations where my books are set – however, given that I wrote this book in 2020/21, it will come as no surprise to learn that I wasn’t able to travel to Russia to visit the imperial palaces. Instead, I did most of my research online, and I’m so grateful to people who uploaded their travelogues of the Alexander Palace and Tobolsk to Youtube. I also did a lot of reading, of course – the Romanovs are the most heavily documented family in history, so there are lots of resources to choose from, including their own diaries and journals.
What’s next for you?
I’m working on my third book! It’s set in occupied France in 1940 and deals with Nazi art theft.
Lastly, do you have any 2022 book recommendations for our readers?
So, so many great books are coming out this year, including Eliza Knight’s The Mayfair Bookshop, Erika Robuck’s Sisters of Night and Fog, Kate Quinn’s The Diamond Eye, Natalie Jenner’s Bloomsbury Girls, and Rachel McMillan’s The Mozart Code. I recently read Madeline Martin’s The Last Bookshop in London, which came out in 2021, and it was simply wonderful.
